Diving into Diversity: Haslea berepwari (Bacillariophyceae, Naviculaceae), a new species of marine diatom from New Caledonia

By

Prasetiya, Fiddy
Jauffrais, Thierry
Mohamed-Benkada, Mustapha
Callac, Nolwenn
Ansquer, Dominique
Yilmaz, Elif
Lemieux, Claude
Turmel, Monique
Mouget, Jean-Luc
Prabowo, Danang Ambar
Purbani, Debora Christin
Noerdjito, Diah Radini
Fahmi, Varian
Arsad, Sulastri
Gastineau, Romain

Type

Article

Date of Publication

2025

Original Publication

PhytoKeys

Volume

255

Pages

215--234

Subjects

Coral Sea , Naviculales , organellar genomes , tropical diatoms

Contributed by

Pensoft Publishers

Language

English

Published by

Sofia, Bulgaria Pensoft Publishers [2010]-

Identifiers

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3897/phytokeys.255.144697

 

Abstract

The current article introduces and describes Haslea berepwarisp. nov., a new species of diatom discovered in the vicinity of Boulouparis, New Caledonia. Under light microscopy, H. berepwarisp. nov. strongly resembles Haslea pseudostrearia, but preliminary molecular barcoding conducted using partial 18S and rbcL genes suggested that it was a distinct species. This was confirmed first by scanning electron microscopy which showed the differences in stria densities between both species. A short-reads genome-skimming protocol applied on H. berepwarisp. nov. led us to obtain its complete mitochondrial and plastid genomes. The mitogenome is 36,572 bp in length and as already observed among other species of Haslea spp., the nad6 and nad2 genes are fused within a single open-reading frame. The plastome is 131,897 bp length, and unlike the mitogenome, it is not colinear with those of H. pseudostrearia. The results derived from the sequencing of the plastome allowed to perform a 123-gene multigene maximum likelihood phylogeny that associates H. berepwarisp. nov. to H. pseudostrearia with maximum support at the nodes but also strictly distinguishes them, suggesting a greater genetic distance between these species than what has been previously observed between other marennine-producing species.