Morphological and Molecular Characterization of Brasilonema roberti-lamii (Cyanophyceae, Nostocales, Scytonemataceae), from Central Mexico

This paper is a contribution to the morphological and molecular characterization of the cyanobacterium Brasilonema robertilamii from populations found in Central Mexico. The general growth form and the morphological, morphometric and ecological characteristics of the populations studied clearly correspond to those described for Brasilonema roberti-lamii ( basionym: Tolypothrix roberti-lamii) from the French Antilles. Based on molecular data from DNA sequencing of the16S rRNA gene and the IGS of the cpcB-cpcA phycocyanin operon (cpcBA-IGS), we propose that the populations that we studied are closely related to those of other Brasilonema species, including B. octagenarum UFV-OR1, UFV-E1 and HA4187-MV1p1F, Brasilonema sennae CENA 114, B. tolantongensis, B. terrestre CENA 116, B. angustatum HA4187-MV1-B2+ p1F and HA4187-MV1-B2+ p1H and B. bromeliae SPC951. Our findings support the transference of Tolypothrix roberti-lamii, which was made based exclusively on morphological criteria, to Brasilonema. The use of molecular analyses in addition to traditional morphological and ecological criteria, known as polyphasic approach, is a good alternative to describe taxa of cyanobacteria, mainly at the genus and species levels.