New record of an economic marine alga, Ahnfeltiopsis concinna, in Korea

• Main Authors: Pil Joon Kang, Ki Wan Nam
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: The Korean Society of Fisheries and Aquatic Science 2017-10-01
• Series: Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
• Subjects: Ahnfeltiopsis concinna; Korea; Economic marine alga; Molecular analysis; rbcL; COI
• Online Access: http://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s41240-017-0070-z

Abstract An economic marine alga, which is considered to be an important source of carrageenan, was collected from Jindo of the southern coast of Korea. This species shares the vegetative and female reproductive features of Ahnfeltiopsis and is characterized mostly by its small size (up to 8 cm), terete to subterete thalli at the lower portion, cartilaginous in texture, dichotomous branches, rarely produced proliferations, and an absence of hypha-like filaments in the medulla. It is distinguished from other Korean species within the genus by the thallus feature. In a phylogenetic tree based on the molecular data, this alga nests in the same clade with A. concinna from Japan but forms a sister clade to A. concinna from Mexico and Hawaii (type locality). However, the genetic distance among those sequences was calculated as 0.1–1.3% for rbcL and 1.1% for COI sequences, considered to be intraspecific variation within the genus. Based on the morphology and molecular analysis, this alga is identified as A. concinna originally described from Hawaii. This is the first record of the species in the Korean marine algal flora.