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Basal Lineages of Green Algae – Their Diversity and Phylogeny

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Marine Protists

Abstract

The basal lineages of the green algae (Chlorophyta) were historically merged in a single class of usually scaly green algal members, the Prasinophyceae. While ultrastructural data were more or less supportive of this idea, modern molecular phylogenetics is showing that a single class is untenable and members are currently accommodated in up to five new classes, (the Chlorodendrophyceae, Mamiellophyceae, Mesostigmatophyceae, Nephroselmidophyceae and Pedinophyceae), with more still to come. This chapter considers the characteristics of, and phylogenetic relationships between, these new classes and other related groups, as well as their representatives and, briefly, their ecology.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Animal Plant and Environmental Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Private Bag 3, WITS 2050, Johannesburg, South Africa

    Stuart D. Sym

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  1. Stuart D. Sym
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Correspondence to Stuart D. Sym .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Takehara Marine Science Station, Setouchi Field Science Center, Graduate School of Biosphere Science, Hiroshima University, Takehara, Hiroshima, Japan

    Susumu Ohtsuka

  2. Graduate School of Science, Kobe University, Kobe, Hyogo, Japan

    Toshinobu Suzaki

  3. Department of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Science, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan

    Takeo Horiguchi

  4. Institute of Geology and Paleontology, Graduate School of Science, Tohoku University, Sendai, Miyagi, Japan

    Noritoshi Suzuki

  5. Centre National de la Recherche Scientifi que – CNRS, University Pierre and Marie Curie – UPMC Station Biologique de Roscoff, Roscoff, France

    Fabrice Not

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Sym, S.D. (2015). Basal Lineages of Green Algae – Their Diversity and Phylogeny. In: Ohtsuka, S., Suzaki, T., Horiguchi, T., Suzuki, N., Not, F. (eds) Marine Protists. Springer, Tokyo. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-4-431-55130-0_5

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