title: Interspecific plastidial recombination in the diatom genus Pseudo-nitzschia.
abstract: Plastids are usually uni-parentally inherited and genetic recombination between these organelles is seldom observed. The genus Pseudo-nitzschia, a globally relevant marine diatom, features bi-parental plastid inheritance in the course of sexual reproduction. This observation inspired the recombination detection we pursued in this paper over a ~1,400-nucleotide-long region of the plastidial rbcL, a marker used in both molecular taxonomy and phylogenetic studies in diatoms. Among all the rbcL-sequences available in web-databases for Pseudo-nitzschia, 42 haplotypes were identified and grouped in five clusters by Bayesian phylogeny. Signs of hybridization were evident in four of five clusters, at both intra- and interspecific levels, suggesting that, in diatoms, (i) plastidial recombination is not absent and (ii) hybridization can play a role in speciation of Pseudo-nitzschia spp.
authors.affiliation: Integrative Marine Ecology Department, Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn, Villa Comunale, Naples, I-80121, Italy.
authors.forename: Domenico
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: D'Alelio
authors.affiliation: Integrative Marine Ecology Department, Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn, Villa Comunale, Naples, I-80121, Italy.
authors.forename: Maria Valeria
authors.initials: MV
authors.lastname: Ruggiero
keywords: Pseudo-nitzschia; diatoms; plastids; rbcL; recombination