Lemanea manipurensis sp. nov. (Batrachospermales), a freshwater red algal species from North-East India

doi:2015.30.1.1

Algae > Volume 30(1); 2015 > Article

Algae 2015;30(1): 1-13. doi: https://doi.org/10.4490/algae.2015.30.1.001

E. K. Ganesan¹,a, J. A. West²^,*, G. C. Zuccarello³, S. Loiseaux de Goër⁴ and J. Rout⁵

¹Instituto Oceanográfico, Universidad de Oriente, Cumaná, 6101, Venezuela
²School of Botany, University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC 3010, Australia
³School of Biological Sciences, Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington, 6140, New Zealand
⁴11 Rue des Moguerou, 29680 Roscoff, France
⁵Department of Ecology and Environmental Science, Assam University, Silchar, 788011, Assam, India

*Corresponding Author

Email: jwest@unimelb.edu.au

ABSTRACT

A new macroscopic riverine red algal species, Lemanea manipurensis sp. nov. (Batrachospermales) is described from Manipur in northeast India. It has a sparsely branched, pseudoparenchymatous thallus with a single, central axial filament that lacks cortical filaments. Spermatangia occur generally in isolated, low and indistinct patches or form an almost continuous ring around the axis. Carposporophytes project into the hollow thallus cavity without an ostiole. The most striking morphological feature is the carposporophyte with very short gonimoblast filaments having cylindrical, narrow and sparsely branched sterile filaments, the terminal cell of each branch with a single, large, elongate carpospore. The widely distributed L. fluviatilis has spherical carpospores in long branched chains. Phylogenetic analysis of rbcL sequence data and comparison with other Batrachospermales clearly show that our specimens do not align with other species of Lemanea and Paralemanea investigated thus far. Five specific names attributed in previous literature (1973- 2014) to Lemanea from Manipur, L. australis, L. catenata, L. fluviatilis, L. mamillosa, and L. torulosa are rejected until critical anatomical and molecular evidence is available for specimens from the Manipur river systems. Taxa referable to Paralemanea were not confirmed for India in this study. In view of the high demand for food and medical uses of L. manipurensis in northeast India, conservation measures are needed for its long term survival. The present paper constitutes the first combined morphological / molecular study on a freshwater red alga from India.

Key words: Batrachospermales; carpospores; India; Lemanea manipurensis sp. nov.; Manipur; molecular phylogeny; rbcL; spermatangia