The bladed Bangiales (Rhodophyta) of the South Eastern Pacific: Molecular species delimitation reveals extensive diversity.
A molecular taxonomic study of the bladed Bangiales of the South Eastern Pacific (coast of Chile) was undertaken based on sequence data of the mitochondrial COI and chloroplast rbcL for 193 specimens collected from Arica (18°S) in the north to South Patagonia (53°S) in the south. The results revealed for the first time that four genera, Porphyra, Pyropia, Fuscifolium and Wildemania were present in the region. Species delimitation was determined based on a combination of a General Mixed Yule Coalescence model (GMYC) and Automatic Barcode Gap Discovery (ABGD) coupled with detection of monophyly in tree reconstruction. The overall incongruence between the species delimitation methods within each gene was 29%. The GMYC method led to over-splitting groups, whereas the ABGD method had a tendency to lump groups. Taking a conservative approach to the number of putative species, at least 18 were recognized and, with the exception of the recently described Pyropia orbicularis, all were new to the Chilean flora. Porphyra and Pyropia were the most diverse genera with eight 'species' each, whereas only a 'single' species each was found for Fuscifolium and Wildemania. There was also evidence of recently diverging groups: Wildemania sp. was distinct but very closely related to W. amplissima from the Northern Hemisphere and raises questions in relation to such disjunct distributions. Pyropia orbicularis was very closely related to two other species, making species delimitation very difficult but provides evidence of an incipient speciation. The difference between the 'species' discovered and those previously reported for the region is discussed in relation to the difficulty of distinguishing species based on morphological identification.
Instituto de Ciencias Ambientales y Evolutivas, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad Austral de Chile, Casilla 567, Valdivia, Chile; UMI 3614 Evolutionary Biology and Ecology of Algae, CNRS, Sorbonne Universités UPMC Univ. Paris 06, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Universidad Austral de Chile.
Marie-Laure
ML
Guillemin
Departamento de Ecología y Biodiversidad, Facultad de Ecología y Recursos Naturales, Universidad Andres Bello, República 440, Santiago, Chile; Center of Applied Ecology & Sustainability (CAPES), Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago, Chile.
Loretto
L
Contreras-Porcia
Departamento de Ecología y Biodiversidad, Facultad de Ecología y Recursos Naturales, Universidad Andres Bello, República 440, Santiago, Chile; Museo Nacional de Historia Natural, Área Botánica, Casilla 787, Santiago, Chile.
María Eliana
ME
Ramírez
Departamento de Oceanografía, Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Oceanográficas, Universidad de Concepción, Casilla 160-C, Concepción, Chile; Millennium Nucleus Ecology and Sustainable Management of Oceanic Island (ESMOI), Coquimbo, Chile.
Erasmo C
EC
Macaya
Departamento de Ecología y Biodiversidad, Facultad de Ecología y Recursos Naturales, Universidad Andres Bello, República 440, Santiago, Chile.
Cristian Bulboa
CB
Contador
Natural History Museum, Department of Life Sciences, Cromwell Road, London SW7 5BD, UK; Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, Edinburgh, Bush Estate, Penicuik, Midlothian, Scotland EH26 0QB, UK.
Helen
H
Woods
EMBL/CRG Research Unit in Systems Biology, Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG), Barcelona 08003, Spain; Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF), Barcelona 08003, Spain.
Christopher
C
Wyatt
Natural History Museum, Department of Life Sciences, Cromwell Road, London SW7 5BD, UK. Electronic address: j.brodie@nhm.ac.uk.
Juliet
J
Brodie
D005075:Biological Evolution; D002677:Chile; D058893:DNA Barcoding, Taxonomic / Q000379:methods; D005819:Genetic Markers; D049810:Genetic Speciation; D014644:Genetic Variation; D010802:Phylogeny; D044664:Porphyra; D000461:Rhodophyta / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics
D005819:Genetic Markers
Automatic Barcode Gap Discovery (ABGD); Chile; General Mixed Yule Coalescence (GMYC); Mitochondrial COI; Morphological plasticity; Plastid rbcL