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New and Rare Species of Volvocaceae (Chlorophyta) in The Polish Phycoflora
New and Rare Species of Volvocaceae (Chlorophyta) in The Polish Phycoflora
New and Rare Species of Volvocaceae (Chlorophyta) in The Polish Phycoflora
Abstract
Seven species of Volvocaceae were recorded in the lower Vistula River and its oxbow lakes, including Pleodorina californica
for the first time in Poland. Three species Eudorina cylindrica, E. illinoisensis and E. unicocca were found in the Polish Vistula
River in the 1960s and 1970s, as well as at present. They are rare species in the Polish aquatic ecosystems. Three species are common both in the oxbow lakes and in the Vistula River: Eudorina elegans, Pandorina morum and Volvox aureus. New and rare
Volvocaceae species were described in terms of morphology and ecology; also photographic documentation (light microscope
microphotographs) was completed.
Keywords: Pleodorina, Pandorina, Eudorina, biodiversity, phytoplankton, oxbow lake, lower Vistula
Introduction
The family of Volvocaceae (Chlorophyta, Volvocales) comprises 7 genera: Eudorina, Pandorina, Platydorina, Pleodorina,
Volvox, Volvulina and Yamagishiella [1]. The genera Astrephomene and Gonium were excluded from Volvocaceae and they
form new families: Goniaceae based on the ultrastructure of
the gelatinous matrix [2] and Tetrabaenaceae (Gonium sociale)
based on the cladistic analysis of morphological data [3]. Over
the last decades, several new species were identified [4,5] and
phylogenetic relationships within this group were determined
[1,68] owing to modern technologies, such as genetic and
molecular analysis.
Volvocaceae is a group of multicellular colonial algae with
the number of cells ranging from 816 cells in Pandorina,
Volvulina, 1632 cells in Eudorina, Platydorina, Yamagishiella
to 3264, or even 128 cells in the genus Pleodorina. Colonies
consisting of 200 to over 50000 cells represent the genus Volvox.
Colonies from the genus Platydorina are flattened, and spherical
or oval from other genera. There are no differences between
somatic and reproductive cells in the genera of Eudorina and
Pandorina, while in Pleodorina, somatic cells are smaller and
reproductive cells are larger. In Volvox colonies, somatic functions are separated from reproductive ones, however most of
the cells (>99%) perform somatic functions [1].
* Email: dembow@biol.uni.torun.pl
Handling Editor: Andrzej Body
This is an Open Access digital version of the article distributed
under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License
(creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/), which permits redistribution, commercial
and non-commercial, provided that the article is properly cited.
The Author(s) 2013 Published by Polish Botanical Society
260
Tab. 1 Morphometric and physicochemical (minmax range) parameters of the investigated oxbow lakes.
Geographical location
Area (ha)
Maximum depth (m)
Maximum length (m)
Maximum width (m)
SD visibility (m)
T (C)
pH
EC (S cm1)
N-NH4 (mg dm3)
N-NO3 (mg dm3)
P-PO4 (mg dm3)
Chl a (g dm3)
W1
W2
W3
Ma
Pr
P.D.
N 5301' E 1839'
1.5
1.8
140
67
0.451.8
7.622.3
7.58.7
598950
0.130.95
0.090.3
00.23
2.6858.52
N 5301' E 1838'
2.0
1.8
172
103
0.61.8
7.623.2
7.69.9
6411130
0.130.75
0.090.88
00.25
3.9770.86
N 5301' E 1839'
2.5
2.5
220
40
0.52.0
7.622.2
7.68.6
56844
0.160.45
0.80.25
0.020.25
3.123524
N 5300' E 1834'
2.8
2.5
640
61
0.42.5
7.924.8
7.99.0
4391072
0.120.42
0.80.23
0.010.12
1.4473.90
N 5300' E 1833'
1.0
2.0
160
100
0.41.3
7.423.1
7.710.5
413708
0.160.45
0.111.0
0.010.18
4.48210.93
N 5301' E 1830'
71
1.8
1800
390
0.31.8
7.625.4
7.89.2
473775
0.010.75
0.61.2
00.08
4.05184.14
WDR
Vist.
W1
W2
W3
Ma
Pr
P.D.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
-
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
-
+
+
-
+
+
+
+
+
+
-
+
+
-
+
+
+
+
+
-
+
-
Results
In the studied reservoirs seven Volvocaceae taxa were
recorded (Tab. 2). All taxa were documented using LM microphotographs (Fig. 1Fig. 7). More detailed accounts were
prepared for the rare species: Eudorina cylindrica, E. illinoisensis,
E. peripheralis and/or Yamagishiella unicocca and Pleodorina
californica.
Eudorina cylindrica Korschikoff
261
262
Fig. 4 a Eudorina peripheralis (Goldstein) Yamada and/or Yamagishiella unicocca (Rayburn et Starr) Nozaki. b Eudorina peripheralis (Goldstein) Yamada and/or Yamagishiella unicocca (Rayburn et Starr) Nozaki; picture below after staining with blue methylene. Scale bars: 10 m.
Fig. 6 Pleodorina californica Shaw; pictures at the bottom after staining with blue methylene. Scale bars: 10 m.
The Author(s) 2013 Published by Polish Botanical Society
263
264
Discussion
In 1968, a total of 8 taxa were found in the seston of the
Vistula River [17], which at present are included in Volvocaceae.
Those are: Eudorina charkowiensis (syn. Pandorina charkowiensis [26]), E. cylindrica, E. elegans, E. illinoisensis, E. unicocca,
Pandorina morum, Volvox aureus, V. globator.
Several of the aforementioned species were found during
the research conducted in 19942010 in the lower Vistula and
the oxbow lakes. Those were: Eudorina cylindrica, E. elegans,
E. illinoisensis, E. unicocca (it is probably E. peripheralis and/
or Yamagishiella unicocca), Pandorina morum, Volvox aureus.
According to Nozaki et al. [25], it is impossible to distinguish between E. unicocca and Yamagishiella unicocca without
genetic analysis (rbcL gene sequence) or observations of sexual
reproduction (isogamy/anisogamy). Both species are identical
in morphological terms. However, in further work Yamada
et al. [24] report that number and distribution of contractile
vacuoles, in all strains of Eudorina and Yamagishiella can be
clearly distinguished two genera. Eudorina strains had several
contractile vacuoles distributed over the entire surface of
vegetative colony protoplasts, whereas Yamagishiella strains
had only two contractile vacuoles near the base of the flagella.
Two species, E. unicocca and E. peripheralis have been
separated from the species Eudorina unicocca. E. unicocca has
characteristic gelatinous matrix divided into individual sheath
covers of each cell. E. peripheralis differs from E. unicocca
in lacking individual sheaths [24]. In disputed species, the
gelatinous matrix is not divided, but unfortunately, contractile
vacuoles are not visible in the preserved material. This makes it
impossible to distinguish these two taxa E. peripheralis and/
or Yamagishiella unicocca of material collected earlier.
Eudorina cylindrica, E. Illinoisensis and E. peripheralis and/
or Yamagishiella unicocca [10] are rare in Poland. P. californica
from the genus Pleodorina is new to Poland the species was
first recorded in 1998 in the Wocawek Reservoir and then
several times during the subsequent research in the Vistula
oxbow lakes.
265
Acknowledgments
I am most grateful to employees of the Institute of Botany
PAS in Cracow, in particular Dr. Jolanta Pitek for making
available the material from the iconotheca of algae. This research was financed by State Committee for Scientific Research
(KBN) under projects No. 6PO4G 048 12 and 6PO4F 007 13
and by Nicolaus Copernicus University research projects
No. 467-B UMK/2007 and 339-B UMK/2008. Many thanks to
anonymous reviewers for comments and helpful suggestions
on the manuscript.
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