DNA barcoding of brown algae around two Korean stations in the Antarctic and the Arctic

Abstract

The aim of the current investigation has been to survey on diversity and DNA barcoding of brown algae around Dasan Station in Svalbard, the Arctic and King Sejong Station in King George Island, the Antarctic based on morphology and DNA barcoding. Diversity and biogeography of representative brown algae, the Desmarestiales and the Laminariales in the Arctic, the Antarctic and their neighbour regions including North Atlantic, southern Chile, Tasmania and South Africa were investigated. We recognized nine desmarestialean and eight laminarialean entities based on their morphological characteristics. We tried to determine cox1 sequences from those samples for molecular comparisons. Of the 143 aligned sequences, there were 143 individuals within 57 species (from 1 to 12 isolates depending on the species) for which within species variation was between 0 and 1 (to 5) bp out of the 658 positions or 0-0.8% divergence. Between species comparisons within genera generally ranged between 20 and 80 changes or 3.0 and 12.2% divergence. There was thus a clear distinction in divergence within versus between species observable with cox1 for representative brown algae studied ？

clearly a necessary attribute for a marker system to be considered useful for the task of species assignment.