Molecular identification of two sibling species under the name Gracilaria chilensis (Rhodophyta, Gracilariales)

Abstract

Molecular markers belonging to three different genomes, mitochondrial (cox2-3 spacer), plastid (RUBISCO spacer), and nuclear (internal transcribed spacer 1), were used to compare Gracilaria chilensis samples collected along the Chilean coast with samples ascribed to G. chilensis from the West Pacific Ocean (New Zealand and Australia). Our data are in agreement with previous studies suggesting two sibling species currently going under the name G. chilensis that co-occur in New Zealand. One of these, a New Zealand sample previously examined by Bird and others in 1990, is conspecific with G. chilensis from Chile. Finally, our results demonstrate clearly that most of the sequences in GenBank reported as G. chilensis are based on misidentified material.