Genetic variability of charophyte algae in the Baltic Sea area

Petra Nowak; Hendrik Schubert

doi:10.1515/bot-2018-0021

Article

Genetic variability of charophyte algae in the Baltic Sea area

Petra Nowak
Petra Nowak is a marine biologist specialising in the biodiversity and evolution of macroalgae and has been conducting research at the University of Rostock. Beside the taxonomical aspect, she is focussed on the molecular and the morphological approaches toward understanding the acclimation and adaptation processes of macroalgae.
and Hendrik Schubert
Hendrik Schubert is a marine biologist specialising in the aquatic ecology with a focus on ecophysiology of autotrophs. Since 15 years he is Professor for Ecology at the University of Rostock, investigating acclimation of organisms to the brackish conditions of the Baltic Sea and unravelling the trophic interactions and the seasonality of the coastal ecosystems.

Published/Copyright: January 7, 2019

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From the journal Botanica Marina Volume 62 Issue 1

Abstract

The Baltic Sea, a young habitat in geological terms, is characterised by strong climatic and salinity gradients that determine species distribution and trigger adaptation processes. The aim here was to test the hypothesis that Baltic Sea charophytes which originate from large freshwater populations exhibit a higher genetic variability than euryhaline charophyte species, restricted to a small number of brackish-marine populations. For this, genetic variability of euryhaline, mesohaline and halotolerant freshwater charophytes with different distribution patterns and population sizes were analysed. Euryhaline Lamprothamnium papulosum, restricted to a few and small populations in the Baltic Sea, showed a complete lack of genetic variability. Also euryhaline Tolypella with large and widely distributed populations displayed only low genetic variability. On the other hand, mesohaline Chara canescens, one of the most common charophytes in the Baltic Sea, exhibited comparatively high genetic variability, in spite of its parthenogenetic mode of reproduction. Halotolerant Chara baltica, originating from freshwater ancestors with a huge number of populations all over Europe, showed a rather restricted genetic variability, indicating a habitat filter acting prior to colonisation of brackish habitats.

Keywords: Chara; genetic diversity; Lamprothamnium; salinity; Tolypella

About the authors

Petra Nowak

Petra Nowak is a marine biologist specialising in the biodiversity and evolution of macroalgae and has been conducting research at the University of Rostock. Beside the taxonomical aspect, she is focussed on the molecular and the morphological approaches toward understanding the acclimation and adaptation processes of macroalgae.

Hendrik Schubert

Hendrik Schubert is a marine biologist specialising in the aquatic ecology with a focus on ecophysiology of autotrophs. Since 15 years he is Professor for Ecology at the University of Rostock, investigating acclimation of organisms to the brackish conditions of the Baltic Sea and unravelling the trophic interactions and the seasonality of the coastal ecosystems.

Acknowledgements

Tina Kyrkander, Gustav Johansson, Ralf Becker, Klaus van de Weyer, Ralf Schaible, Anja Holzhausen, Irmgard Blindow, Tim Steinahardt, Angela Döge, Susana Romo and many others are gratefully acknowledged for collecting and providing samples. Ulla von Ammon (Cawthron Institute, New Zealand), Claudia Lott as well as Ralf Bastrop (University of Rostock, Department of Animal Physiology) and co-workers are gratefully acknowledged for sequencing many samples. We would like to thank Susanne Thümecke for critical reading and for thorough language editing. We gratefully acknowledge the valuable comments of our anonymous reviewers and our editor Matthew Dring for their helpful suggestions. This work was partly supported by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF, UHRO26).

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The online version of this article offers supplementary material (https://doi.org/10.1515/bot-2018-0021).

Received: 2018-03-01

Accepted: 2018-12-13

Published Online: 2019-01-07

Published in Print: 2019-02-25

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Keywords for this article

Chara; genetic diversity; Lamprothamnium; salinity; Tolypella