Taxonomic revision of the genus Cutleria proposing a new genus Mutimo to accommodate M. cylindricus (Cutleriaceae, Phaeophyceae)

Molecular phylogenetic analyses of representative Cutleria species using mitochondrial cox3, chloroplast psaA, psbA and rbcL gene sequences showed that C. cylindrica Okamura was not included in the clade composed of other Cutleria species including the generitype C. multifida (Turner) Greville and the related taxon Zanardinia typus (Nardo) P.C. Silva. Instead, C. cylindrica was sister to the clade composed of the two genera excluding C. cylindrica. Cutleria spp. have heteromophic life histories and their gametophytes are rather diverse in gross morphology, from compressed or cylindrical-branched to fan-shaped, whereas the sporophytes are rather similar. In contrast, the monotypic species Z. typus has an isomorphic life history and resembles fan-shaped Cutleria in morphology. Morphological comparisons of these taxa revealed that C. cylindrica is morphologically distinct from other Cutleria spp. and Z. typus in having cylindrical gametophytes with multiseriate trichothallic filaments instead of uniseriate filaments (hairs) characteristic of Cutleriales (or Cutleriaceae, Tilopteridales), and in lacking rhizoidal filaments in the crustose sporophytes. Therefore, based on the molecular and morphological data, the establishment of a new genus Mutimo to accommodate C. cylindrica, and the new combination of M. cylindricus, is proposed.