A new blue-pigmented hasleoid diatom,Haslea provincialis,from the Mediterranean Sea |
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Authors: | Romain Gastineau Gert Hansen Nikolaï A. Davidovich Olga Davidovich Jean-François Bardeau Irena Kaczmarska |
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Affiliation: | 1. FR CNRS 3473 IUML, Mer-Molécules-Santé (MMS), Université du Maine, Avenue Olivier Messiaen, 72085 Le Mans CEDEX 9, France;2. Marine Biological Section, Department of Biology, K?benhavns Universitet, 1353 K?benhavns, Denmark;3. Karadag Nature Reserve of the National Academy of Sciences, p/o Kurortnoe, Feodosiya, Crimea, 98188;4. UMR CNRS 6283, Institut des Molécules et Matériaux du Mans, Université du Maine Avenue Olivier Messiaen, 72085 Le Mans Cedex 9, France;5. Department of Biology, Mount Allison University, Sackville, NB E4L 1G7, Canada |
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Abstract: | Haslea provincialis Gastineau, Hansen & Mouget, sp. nov., is a new, morphologically semicryptic blue diatom discovered on the French shores of the Mediterranean Sea. Like H. ostrearia and H. karadagensis, H. provincialis shares the capacity to synthesize a marennine-like blue pigment. Sexual reproduction between clones of H. provincialis has been repeatedly observed and resulted in viable initial cells. There were no sexual interactions with sexually competent clones of H. ostrearia or H. karadagensis, as would be expected for a separate biological species. There are strong similarities between the H. provincialis pigment and the marennine produced by H. ostrearia, evidenced by UV-visible spectrophotometry and Raman spectrometry. However, unlike the marennine from H. ostrearia, no differences were found between the extracellular and the intracellular forms of the pigment in H. provincialis. This indicates that the synthesis pathways and excretion mechanisms among the three ‘blue’ Haslea may be species-specific. Molecular taxonomy and phylogeny (based on rbcL, cox1 and SSU V4 DNA sequences) confirmed the distinct position of this species among the blue Haslea species. Haslea provincialis occurs in environments from which H. ostrearia has already been reported (mostly based on the presence of the blue cell vacuoles). Possible species misidentifications and the impact of the complex geological history of the Mediterranean Sea on blue diatom diversification are also discussed. |
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Keywords: | Bacillariophyta cox1 Haslea marennine-like pigment Mediterranean Sea micro-Raman spectroscopy new species rbcL taxonomy |
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