PorphyraandBangia(Bangiaceae, Rhodophyta) in warm temperate waters of eastern Australia: Morphological and molecular analyses

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Abstract
SUMMARY: Morphological observations confirm the presence of only three species of the Bangiaceae (Rhodophyta) in warm temperate waters of eastern Australia:Bangia atropurpurea, Porphyra columbinaandPorphyra denti‐culata. Analyses of DNA sequence data from the inter‐generic spacer region between the large‐ and small‐sub‐unit ribulose‐l,5‐bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase gene (rbcL andrbcS, respectively) and portions of the flanking regions, confirm these taxonomic conclusions for the twoPorphyraspecies: there is clear sequence divergence between the two species, and strong genetic similarity betweenP. columbinaisolates over a wide geographical region. Sequence analyses also reveal a strong similarity betweenBangiaisolates over a wide geographical range, but the taxonomy ofB. atropurpureamay need to be re‐examined in light of sequence differences between these and northern hemisphere isolates ofB. atropurpurea. Molecular analyses support the view thatBangiaandPorphyraspecies are sufficiently closely related to be placed in a single genus.