An unknown microscopic, branched filamentous red alga was isolated into culture from coral fragments collected in Coral Bay, Western Australia. It grew well unattached or attached to glass with no reproduction other than fragmentation of filaments. Cells of some branch tips became slightly contorted and digitated, possibly as a substrate-contact-response seen at filament tips of various algae. Attached multicellular compact disks on glass had a very different cellular configuration and size than the free filaments. In culture the filaments did not grow on or in coral fragments. Molecular phylogenies based on four markers (rbcL, cox1, 18S, 28S) clearly showed it belongs to the order Rhodogorgonales, as a sister clade of Renouxia. Based on these results, the alga is described as the new genus and species Rhodenigma contortum in the Rhodogorgonaceae. It had no morphological similarity to either of the other genera in Rhodogorgonaceae and illustrates the unknown diversity in cryptic habitats such as tropical coral rubble.
Keywords: 18S; 28S; Australia; Coral Bay; Rhodenigma contortum; Rhodogorgonales; Rhodophyta; cox1; molecular phylogeny; psbA; rbcL.
© 2016 Phycological Society of America.