Occurrence of Rare Coralline Red Algae Mastophora Rosea (C
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Indian Journal of Geo-Marine Sciences Vol. 44(12), December 2015, pp. 1894-1896 Occurrence of rare coralline red algae Mastophora rosea (C. Agardh) Setchell, from Little Andaman, India P.Karthick1, R. Mohanraju1, Kada Narayana Murthy1, CH. Ramesh1 & M. Palanisamy2 1 Department of Ocean Studies and Marine Biology, Pondicherry University, Brookshabad Campus, Port Blair, 744112, Andaman and Nicobar Islands. 2Botanical Survey of India, Southern Regional Centre, TNAU Campus, Coimbatore -641 003, Tamil Nadu, India [E.Mail: [email protected]] Received 23 July 2014; revised 16 September 2014 Coralline red algae Mastophora rosea (Corallinaceae, Corallinales, Rhodophyta) were collected from tide pools from Little Andaman during August 2013. Collected sample was found to be bluish purple in color, dichotomously branched, round shaped carpogonial conceptacles were found on the surface of thallus, tetrasporangial open pore size 120 µm was spherical in shape. The algae was identified up to species level and was found to be a new distributional record to Andaman and Nicobar islands. [Keywords: Coralline algae, Little Andaman, Mastophora] Introduction formalin. Samples were also shade dried and used Coralline red algae are found to be hard for measuring the conceptacles, epithelial cells due the presence of calcareous deposits and are were measured directly under the Nikon SMZ mostly found in coral reefs, intertidal rocky shore, 1500: WD54 and Nikon Eclipse 50i microscope. tide pools and also an epiphytes on other algae Based on the morphological features identification and some are epizoic. Mastophora are coralline was carried out following the key3 and also algae classified under the subfamily following the revised checklist of Indian marine Mastophoroideae (Corallinaceae, Corallinales, algae6, Catalogue of benthic marine algae of Rhodophyta)1,2. Three different species of Indian Ocean7 and Algae base was referred for the Mastophora, M. rosea, M. pacifica and M. conformation of new distributional reports. multistrata have been described (Keats et al, Mastophora rosea (C. Agardh) Setchell (1943)8 2009)3. Recently coralline algae Cheilosporum cultratum and green algae Caulerpa lentillifera Description have been reported as new distributional records Sample was found to be coralline red from Little Andaman Island4 and also its algae showing bluish purple in color, surface was 4,5 commercial importance of Little Andaman . A much pigmented blue in color than the rhizoids coralline red algal samples was collected from the (Fig 1), dichotomously branched, end of the intertidal pools of Harminder Bay Bridge, in Little thallus were shaped like a fan. Thallus was small, Andaman during a survey conducted in the month thick, with rectangular shaped cell arrangement of August 2013. with surface of thallus possessing cylindrical or ring shaped conceptacles (Fig 2). Microscopy Materials and Method observation revealed that the outer cell Coralline algal specimen were collected arrangements were rectangular in shape (Fig 3), by the hand picking method from tide pool of the diameter of the round shaped conceptacle was intertidal splash zone region of Harminder Bay ranged from 764 -887 µm (Fig 3) and diameter of bridge, Little Andaman (lat 100 45’N, long. 920 open pore was between 81-120µm (Fig 4). 80’ E) during low tide during the month of August Distribution: China (Tseng 1984; Zhou & 2013. Samples were washed properly with sterile Zang 1987), Guam (Agardh 1824; Turner & seawater. For the identification herbarium sheets Woelkerling 1982), Indonesia (Verheij & were prepared and maintained in our database and Prud’homme van Reine 1993; Silva et al. 1987), a portion of the sample was preserved with 4% Micronesia (Lobban & Tsuda 2003). Papua New KARTHICK et al.: OCCURRENCE OF RARE CORALLINE RED ALGAE MASTOPHORA ROSEA (C. AGARDH) 1895 Guinea (Littler & Littler 2003), Philippines (Silva Taiwan (Huang 1990), Vietnam (Abbott et al. et al. 1987), Japan (Yoshida et al. 1990), 2002). Ryukyu Islands3 (Keats et al, 2009). Fig. 1- Bluish purple Mastophora rosea coralline red algae Fig.3- Microscopic view of carpogonial conceptacles and rectangular epithelial cells. Fig. 2- Dichotomous branch with conceptacles on the dorsal Fig. 4- Close view of carpogonial conceptacle open pore surface with bundles of Carpogonial conceptacles clearly visible under the microscope. Discussion Australia region as ‘rose, orange-pink to purple in Coralline red algae are mostly found in color, whereas its purple red in China. In the coral reefs, tide pools and in intertidal rocky present study Mastophora rosea was found to be substratum. Mastophora rosea were observed in bluish purple in color during the collection of the littoral zone of Hsiau- Liuchiu in Taiwan9. specimen and retained its pigmentation even in Earlier this algae Mastophora rosea had been pressed herbarium sheets but lost its pigmentation misidentified by various authors, and only recent when the samples were preserved with formalin studies define a clear distribution pattern of after a long time. Little Andaman is situated in the Mastophora rosea based on their morphological middle of Andaman and Nicobar group of Islands and characteristic features well documented by in the Bay of Bengal, where most of the intertidal microscopic observation3. Color configuration of regions are not disturbed because of the Mastophora rosea was observed to vary with inaccessibility to these place and the west coast of different color patterns in Indo-Pacific and this island comes under the restricted region and 1896 INDIAN J. MAR. SCI., VOL. 44, NO. 12 DECEMBER 2015 thus survey cannot be undertaken. Recent studies 5. Mohanraju, R and Tanushree. P. Seaweed distribution shows the occurrence of Caulerpa lentillifera, a in South and Little Andaman. In: Ecology of Faunal Communities on the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, commercially important species and coralline edited by K. Venkataraman, C. Raghunathan and C. algae Cheilosporum cultratum as new Sivaperuman. (Springer, Heidelberg), (2012): distributional finding from this island4. Present pp.149-158. findings signify the importance in understanding 6. Oza, M.R and Zaidi, S.H., A Revised Checklist of seaweed diversity in this region and the need for Indian Marine Algae. CSMCRI, Bhavnagar, India, (2001): pp. 296 documenting the presence of other species or new 7. Silva, C.P., Basson, P.W. & Moe, R.L. Catalogue of the distributional records from this unexplored benthic marine algae of the Indian Ocean. University of environment in Little Andaman. California press, London, (1996): pp. 136. 8. Setchell, W.A. Mastophora and the Mastophoreae: Acknowledgement genus and subfamily of Corallinaceae. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Washington, Authors wish to thank University Authorities for (1943): pp. 127–135. providing the facilities. 9. Huang, S.F. The marine algal flora of Hsiao-Liuchiu Island. Bot. Bull. Academia. Sinica., 31 (1990): Reference 245-255. 1. Turner, J.A. and Woelkerling, W.J., Studies on the 10. www.algaebase.org Mastophora – Lithoporella complex (Corallinaceae, Rhodophyta). I. Meristems and thallus structure and development. Phycologia., 21 (1982a): 201–217. 2. Turner, J.A. and Woelkerling, W.J. Studies on the Mastophora – Lithoporella complex (Corallinaceae, Rhodophyta).II. Reproduction and generic concepts. Phycologia., 21 (1982b): 218–235. 3. Keats, D.W., Maneveldt, G.W., Baba, M., Chamberlain, Y.M and Lewis, J.E., Three species of Mastophora (Rhodophyta: Corallinales, Corallinaceae) in the tropical Indo-Pacific Ocean: M. rosea (C. Agardh) Setchell, M. pacifica (Heydrich) Foslie, and M. multistrata sp. nov. Phycologia., 48 (2009): 404–422. 4. Karthick. P., Mohanraju, Murthy, K.N., Ramesh, CH. and Narayana. S., Seaweed potential of Little Andaman. Seaweed. Res. Utilin., 35 (2013): 17-21. .