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Morphological and Phylogenetic Analysis of Anabaenopsis abijatae and Anabaenopsis elenkinii (Nostocales, Cyanobacteria) from Tropical Inland Water Bodies

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Abstract

Anabaenopsis spp. are heterocytous cyanobacteria commonly found in tropical, subtropical, and temperate water bodies. So far, the knowledge about the phylogeny of this genus is poor. Therefore, we have isolated 15 Anabaenopsis spp. strains from Kenyan and Mexican alkaline and saline water bodies and from a Ugandan freshwater body and studied the morphology and phylogeny in a polyphasic approach. Morphologically, the investigated strains could be discriminated in two groups. One group was containing six Anabaenopsis abijatae and A. cf. abijatae strains with up to more than 500 vegetative cells in one filament, mostly single intercalary heterocyte formation, and the ability to branch out. The other group comprised nine strains of Anabaenopsis elenkinii with short filaments with up to 38 vegetative cells, intercalary heterocytes in pairs, and no ability to branch out. The morphological differences were reflected in the two distinct clusters, which were found in the phylogenetic trees of 16S rDNA and PC-IGS. While the high 16S rDNA similarity values >97.5% found between all investigated A. abijatae and A. elenkinii strains support the assignment of these two species to one single genus, the morphological differences and the low similarity values (<87.3) found in PC-IGS sequences between the two clusters indicate two separate genera. A close morphological and phylogenetic relationship was found for A. abijatae and Anabaenopsis (Cyanospira) rippkae.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank the authorities of the Republic of Kenya, especially the Ministry of Education Science and Technology for providing research permission (No. MOEST 13/001/31 C90). We thank the Uganda National Council for Science and Technology for providing research permit (No. UNCST-EC584) and Eberto Novelo and La Gerencia del Lago de Texcoco, CNA, México, for permission to collect phytoplankton samples. We thank Randi Skulberg for providing the two NIVA-CYA strains from the NIVA Culture collection of Algae. We are grateful to the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research for financial support (grant No. BIOLOG 01LC0001).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Leibniz-Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries, Alte Fischerhütte 2, 16775, Stechlin, Germany

    Andreas Ballot & Lothar Krienitz

  2. Post-Graduate Department of Botany, Government College, Ajmer, 305001, Rajasthan, India

    Pawan K. Dadheech

  3. Norwegian Institute for Water Research, Gaustadalléen 21, N-0349, Oslo, Norway

    Sigrid Haande

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  1. Andreas Ballot
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Correspondence to Andreas Ballot.

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Ballot, A., Dadheech, P.K., Haande, S. et al. Morphological and Phylogenetic Analysis of Anabaenopsis abijatae and Anabaenopsis elenkinii (Nostocales, Cyanobacteria) from Tropical Inland Water Bodies. Microb Ecol 55, 608–618 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00248-007-9304-4

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