176 New Discoveries Regarding the Benthic Marine Algal Flora of The
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PSA ABSTRACTS 1 1 of K. micrum, but fail to complete the infection cycle. TAXON SAMPLING AND INFERENCES ABOUT Thus, in mixed-species dinoflagellate blooms, inter- ference from inappropriate hosts may influence the DIATOM PHYLOGENY success of spp. To explore that possibility, 1 2 Amoebophrya Alverson, A. J. & Theriot, E. C. we conducted laboratory studies to examine the effect 1 Section of Integrative Biology, University of Texas at of the toxic dinoflagellate K. micrum on success of Austin, TX 78713 USA; 2Texas Memorial Museum, Amoebophrya from A. sanguinea. Treatments consisted University of Texas at Austin, TX 78705 USA of A. sanguinea (1000/mL) plus corresponding dinos- pores (10,000/mL) in the presence of different K. Proper taxon sampling is one of the greatest micrum densities (0 to 100,000/mL). We also examined challenges to understanding phylogenetic relation- whether changes in parasite success were due to ships, perhaps as important as choice of optimality interaction with K. micrum cells, or from indirect criterion or data type. This has been demonstrated in effects of bacteria or dissolved substances present in diatoms where centric diatoms may either be strongly K. micrum cultures. Success of Amoebophrya was supported as monophyletic or paraphyletic when unaffected by low densities of K. micrum, but analyzing SSU rDNA sequences using the same decreased at high concentrations of K. micrum. optimality criterion. The effect of ingroup and out- Reduced parasite success appeared to result from group taxon sampling on relationships of diatoms is combined effects of non-host cells and dissolved explored for diatoms as a whole and for the order substances in K. micrum media. Results suggest that Thalassiosirales. In the latter case, SSU rDNA and parasitism of A. sanguinea in Chesapeake Bay would rbcL sequence data result in phylogenetic relation- be reduced when K. micrum is a major component of ships that appear to be strongly incongruent with mixed-species blooms. morphology and broadly incongruent with the fossil record. For example, Cyclotella stelligera Cleve & 3 Grunow behaves like a rogue taxon, jumping from place to place throughout the tree. Morphological PHYLOGENETIC AFFINITY OF THE PALMEL- data place C. stelligera near the base of the freshwater LOID GREEN ALGAE, VERDIGELLAS AND group as sister to the extinct genus Mesodictyon PALMOPHYLLUM (CHLOROPHYTA), BASED Theriot and Bradbury, suggesting that it is an old, ON ANALYSES OF NUCLEAR-ENCODED SMALL long branch that might be expected to ‘‘misbehave’’ in poorly sampled trees. Cyclotella stelligera and C. SUBUNIT rDNA SEQUENCES 1 2 bodanica Grunow delimit the diameter of morpholo- Ashworth, M. P. , Spalding, H. L. , Hanisak, M. gical diversity in Cyclotella, so increased sampling of D.3, Fawley, M. W.4, Buchheim, M. A.5, & Zech- intermediate taxa will be critical to resolving this part man, F. W.1 of the tree. Morphology is sampled for a much 1Department of Biology, California State University, greater number of taxa and many transitional states Fresno, Fresno, CA 93740 USA; 2Botany Department, of putative synapomorphies seem to suggest a robust University of Hawai’i at Manoa, Honolulu, HI 96822 morphological hypothesis. The Thalassiosirales are USA; 3Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution, Fort unstable with regards to taxon sampling in the Pierce, FL 34946 USA; 4Department of Biological genetic data, suggesting that perhaps the morpholo- gical hypothesis is (for now) preferable. Sciences, North Dakota State University, Fargo, ND 58105 USA; 5Department of Biological Sciences, University of Tulsa, Tulsa, OK 74104 USA 2 INFLUENCE OF MIXED HOST POPULATIONS Palmophyllum, Verdigellas and Palmoclathrus are ON SUCCESS OF THE PARASITIC DINOFLA- marine palmelloid green algae with morphologies GELLATE AMOEBOPHRYA ranging from closely adherent crusts, peltate discs, to 1 2 &Coats,D.W.3 upright branched thalli. Thalli of these taxa are Armstrong, T.-N. , Felton, C. comprised of small spherical cells embedded within a 1University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742 2 dense mucilaginous matrix. Taxonomic affinities of USA; Morgan State University, Baltimore, MD 21251 these palmelloid genera, however, has remained 3 USA; Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, uncertain. Previous studies of Palmophyllum and Edgewater, MD 21037 USA Verdigellas classified these algae within the Palmella- ceae, but the complete absence of data regarding Parasitic dinoflagellates of the genus Amoebophrya reproduction have blurred ordinal designations. commonly infect bloom-forming dinoflagellates of Generally, these algae have been classified as mem- Chesapeake Bay, including Akashiwo sanguinea and bers of the Tetrasporales within the class Chlorophy- Karlodinium micrum. While different strains of Amoebo- ceae, but the Chlorococcales has also been proposed. phrya appear host specific, infective dinospores Global analyses of eukaryotic nuclear-encoded small liberated from A. sanguinea do enter the cytoplasm subunit rDNA sequences based on parsimony (MP), 2 PSA ABSTRACTS neighbor joining (NJ) and likelihood (ML) methods stratigraphy and family, tribal and generic relation- confirm the placement of Palmophyllum and Verdi- ships among these living algal fossils. Supported in gellas as a monophyletic group within the Chloro- part by NSF grant DEB-0128977 to FWZ. phyta, but class and ordinal affinities were not clearly resolved. ML suggested that Verdigellas and Palmo- 5 phyllum are members of a clade with coccoid prasinophyte algae at the base of the Chlorophyta, THE ORIGIN OF THE DINOFLAGELLATE while NJ and ML suggested that the palmelloid PLASTID genera formed a basal lineage of the Viridiplantae. A Bachvaroff, T. R.1, Concepcion, G. T.1, Rogers, C. consistent feature of all analyses, however, is that R.1, Herman, E. M.2, & Delwiche, C. F.1 Verdigellas and Palmophyllum did not group with 1Department of Cell Biology and Molecular Genetics, the chlorophycean orders, Tetrasporales or Chlor- University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742; ococcales. Results will be discussed in the context of 2Soybean Genomic Improvement Laboratory, USDA/ taxonomy, character evolution, and implications for ARS, Beltsville, MD 20705 USA green plant evolution. (Supported in part by NSF grants DEB-0128952 to MWF, DEB-0129030 to MAB, and DEB-0128977 to FWZ) Dinoflagellates are griffins, that is the merger of two eukaryotes: a heterotrophic host, the dinoflagellate, 4 and a photosynthetic eukaryote. Our work has been PHYLOGENY OF THE DASYCLADALES (UL- focussed on the endosymbiont’s identity and the massive gene transfer implied by secondary endo- VOPHYCEAE, CHLOROPHYTA) BASED ON symbiosis. Dinoflagellates have many different types ANALYSES OF NUCLEAR-ENCODED LARGE of chloroplasts, but the majority of photosynthetic SUBUNIT RDNA dinoflagellates are pigmented with the carotenoid Ashworth, M. P. & Zechman, F. W. peridinin and chlorophyll c. The chloroplast genome Department of Biology, California State University, of these organisms is cryptic. Genes that have been Fresno, Fresno CA 93740 attributed to the chloroplast are encoded on mini- circles that contain one or two genes. Phylogenetic The Dasycladales is an ancient order of tropical analysis using these genes suggests that the peridinin benthic marine green algae, unique in their radially chloroplast was derived from haptophytes. Since arranged unicellular thalli and well-preserved fossil these minicircle genes have an extreme rate of change record due to extensive calcification of the thallus. phylogenetic methods may produce misleading re- The inference of an accurate phylogeny for the sults. Statistical tests were used to test the quality of Dasycladales is important in order to better under- phylogenetic methods given these data, particularly stand stratigraphy, character evolution, and classifi- the maximum likelihood model. To find plastid asso- cation. Previous analyses (rbcL and 18S rDNA) ciated genes with more reasonable evolutionary rates suggested that the Family Acetabulariaceae is mono- an expressed sequence tag survey was begun. Among phyletic, but that the Family Dasycladaceae is a basal these sequences many typically plastid encoded genes paraphyletic assemblage. However, the two data sets were found including six genes that are exclusively disagreed regarding genus- and species-level rela- plastid encoded in other eukaryotes. These data tionships within the Dasycladales. For example, the suggest massive chloroplast to nucleus gene transfer placement of the genera, Halicoryne, Bornetella and in dinoflagellates, and fits well with the small Cymopolia were incongruent. Given the conflicting complement of minicircle genes. Phylogenetic ana- results of these previous analyses, the current project lyses using these typically plastid encoded genes was examined a third highly conserved nuclear-encoded also performed. It is now possible to directly test gene, 26S rDNA. Aligned 26S rDNA sequences were hypotheses of plastid origin within dinoflagellates and analyzed with parsimony and model-based methods the chlorophyll c containing algae. and compared to previous results based on18S and rbcL sequences. Family-level relationships based on 6 26S rDNA were congruent with previous studies: the DOES TEMPERATURE RESTRICT THE LATI- Acetabulariaceae is monophyletic while the Dasycla- daceae is paraphyletic. In addition, acetabulariacean TUDINAL DISTRIBUTION OF SYMBIOTIC genera are not monophyletic, suggesting that the ZOOXANTHELLAE WITHIN THE SEA ANE- presence of a corona inferior or calcification