Color inheritance and pigment characterization of red (wild-type), greenish-brown, and green strains of Gracilaria birdiae (Gracilariales, Rhodophyta) |
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Authors: | Viviane L Costa and Estela M Plastino |
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Institution: | (1) Departamento de Bot?nica, Instituto de Bioci?ncias, Universidade de S?o Paulo, Rua do Mat?o 277, Cidade Universit?ria, 05508-090 S?o Paulo, SP, Brazil; |
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Abstract: | Species of Gracilaria are some of the most useful algae in the world for the production of agar. As a consequence of its economic importance, the
genus has been the subject of many studies worldwide. Color variants of Gracilaria birdiae have been found in the natural population on the Brazilian coast, and they have also been isolated from plants cultivated
in laboratory. These findings raised new questions regarding intraspecific variation and the prospects of cultivating such
variants for their agar production. Therefore, this work aimed to determine the mode of color inheritance for two G. birdiae strains: a greenish-brown strain (gb) found in a natural population and a green strain (gr) which had arisen as a spontaneous
mutation in a red plant cultured in the laboratory. The pigment contents of these strains, as well as the red wild-type (rd),
were also characterized. Crosses between female and male plants of the same color (rd, gr, or gb) and between different colors
were performed. Crosses between plants of the same color showed tetrasporophytic and gametophytic descendents of the parental
color. Recessive nuclear inheritance was found in the greenish-brown strain, and cytoplasmic maternal inheritance was found
in the green strain; both had lower phycoerythrin and higher concentrations of allophycocyanin and phycocyanin than the wild-type.
Chlorophyll a contents were similar among all strains. Taken together, our results contribute to knowledge about the variability of this
important red algae. In addition, since greenish-brown and green strains showed stability of color, both could be selected
and tested in experimental sea cultivation to evaluate if mutants have advantageous performance when compared with red strain. |
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