John A. West

• PhD Botany, Univ.Washington 1966
• Honorary Associate at University of Melbourne

Eukaryotic organelle genomes are generally of conserved size and gene content within phylogenetic groups. However, significant variation in genome structure may occur. Here, we report that the Stylonematophyceae red algae contain multipartite circular mitochondrial genomes (i.e., minicircles) which encode one or two genes bounded by a specific cass...

Marine phylogeographic studies have recently shown that historical events, oceanography and ecological factors shape patterns of biodiversity and population connectivity. In southeastern Australia a historical geographic barrier, the Bassian Isthmus, results in deep genetic differentiation between some marine taxa. Using partial mitochondrial cytoc...

The recently described red alga Tsunamia transpacifica (Stylonematophyceae) was previously isolated from plastic drift found at the pacific coast, but the natural habitat remains unknown. Here, we investigate ultrastructural details and the low molecular weight soluble carbohydrate composition to get further insight into the adaptation to this unco...

Most genera of the freshwater red algal order Batrachospermales have been systematically revised using molecular and morphological data, but Sirodotia Kylin remains to be thoroughly reviewed. In this investigation, DNA sequence data for the rbcL, COI-5P and LSU markers of specimens collected worldwide were combined with morphological observations t...

Most genera of the freshwater red algal order Batrachospermales have been systematically revised using molecular and morphological data, but Sirodotia Kylin remains to be thoroughly reviewed. In this investigation, DNA sequence data for the rbcL, COI-5P and LSU markers of specimens collected worldwide were combined with morphological observations t...

The advent of high‐throughput‐sequencing (HTS) has allowed for the use of large numbers of coding regions to produce robust phylogenies. These phylogenies have been used to highlight relationships at ancient diversifications (subphyla, class), and highlight the evolution of plastid genome structure. The Erythropeltales are an order in the Compsopog...

The Gracilariaceae is a species-rich family, with a number of members having high commercial value as sources of agar. Members of this family are also known for their phenotypic plasticity and convergent morphologies, resulting in considerable taxonomic confusion. Over the past two decades, two species of Agarophyton (previously part of Gracilaria)...

In India the genus Sirodotia has been documented solely on morphological data. A new species of Sirodotia (Sirodotia assamica sp. nov.) was found in two localities in the State of Assam, India. Phylogenetic relationships of the new species were inferred on the basis of DNA sequence data for the plastid rbcL gene and the barcode region of the mitoch...

Freshwater red algae of the order Batrachospermales are poorly studied in India and Nepal, especially on a molecular basis. During a survey in northeast India and east Nepal, six populations of the genus Sheathia were found and analyzed using molecular and morphological evidence. Phylogenetic analyses based on the rbcL gene sequences grouped all po...

Freshwater red algal diversity and the relationship with water conditions in 22 stream segments in the area around Khao Luang National Park, Nakhon Si Thammarat province, southern Thailand, were studied during a period of twelve months (May 2014 to April 2015). Sixteen species of freshwater red algae, belonging to eight genera (Audouinella, Balliop...

An annotated bibliographic catalogue of Indian red algae (Rhodophyta) occurring in freshwater and estuarine habitats (moist terrestrial soils, ponds, streams, rivers, lakes, large inland brackish water lagoons and coastal estuaries), based on more than a century (1846 to 2017) of publications is presented in a single coherent work for the first tim...

Living material of a marine red alga consisting of a prostrate basal system and small erect blades was isolated from laboratory-incubated substratum collected in a sea cave at 7 m depth on Easter Island in the Southeast Pacific. The alga in culture was morphologically identified as Apoglossum gregarium (E.Y. Dawson) M.J. Wynne. Molecular analyses (...

The discovery of a plethora of cryptic species in many algal groups has led to speculation as to the causes of this observation and has affected taxonomy, with reluctance to give names to species that look identical. While this is defensible for monophyletic cryptic species complexes, both our understanding of similar morphologies (crypsis) and nom...

Chroothece has been reported from a range of freshwater environments, including streams, shallow ponds, trickling water on cliffs and moist soils, mostly in Europe and North America. The identification of genera and species morphologically is difficult because of overlaps in critical characters. To help clarify diversity within the genus, samples f...

Distribution patterns and genetic diversity of Caloglossa species have been studied in various regions but are still poorly understood around the tropical western Pacific where many marine organisms show high species richness. We explored the diversity of Caloglossa species in New Ireland, Papua New Guinea using morphological and genetic analyses....

In animals and land plants, many asexual species originate through inter- or intraspecific crosses, and such heterozygous asexuals frequently are more abundant than their sexual relatives in marginal habitats. Although asexual species have been reported in various macroalgal taxa, detailed information regarding their distribution, heterozygosity, a...

The introduction of molecular tools has revolutionized the study of red algal systematics throughout all taxonomic levels over the last 25 years. Most of the research employed a single or a few molecular markers, with the inherent limitation that it does not provide enough data to resolve many phylogenetic relationships. The recent development of h...

With over a thousand species, the Rhodomelaceae is the most species-rich family of red algae. While its genera have been assigned to 14 tribes, the high-level classification of the family has never been evaluated with a molecular phylogeny. Here, we reassess its classification by integrating genome-scale phylogenetic analysis with observations of t...

Wittrockiella is a small genus of filamentous green algae that occurs in habitats with reduced or fluctuating salinities. Many aspects of the basic biology of these algae are still unknown and the phylogenetic relationships within the genus have not been fully explored. We provide a phylogeny based on three ribosomal markers (ITS, LSU and SSU rDNA)...

Genetic sequence data allows for the identification of previously imperceptible cryptic species. Cryptic species are common in algae that have few morphologically distinguishable features. Identifying cryptic species with asexual life cycles requires consideration of whether the biology of the algae meets the assumptions of the analysis used to del...

Systematic studies on the closely related red algal species of Caloglossa, C. beccarii, C. fluviatilis and C. stipitata, were conducted because the morphological and phylogenetic distinction of the three species was not resolved previously. The large-subunit ribosomal DNA or rbcL gene analyses revealed that specimens from Indian freshwater rivers a...

Background: The red algae (Rhodophyta) diverged from the green algae and plants (Viridiplantae) over one billion years ago within the kingdom Archaeplastida. These photosynthetic lineages provide an ideal model to study plastid genome reduction in deep time. To this end, we assembled a large dataset of the plastid genomes that were available, incl...

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 digitate, possibly as a substrate-contact-resp...

Phylogenetic relationships and morphological characters are presented for a population of Nemalionopsis shawii Skuja collected from Nepal. Molecular data (sequences of rbcL and cox1) were generated and morphological characters were described in detail. The rbcL sequence analyses showed that specimens from Nepal are most similar to N. shawii from In...

Thorea indica sp. nov. is described from the Sai River, Uttar Pradesh, India (26°39’00.7” N, 80°47’38.3” E). Its classification is based on molecular sequences of the plastid-encoded RuBisCO large-subunit gene, rbcL and the barcode region of the mitochondrial encoded cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1, cox1, and morphological data. The sequence analyse...

Caloglossa species occurs in freshwater streams around Southest Asia. We report it from 2 different riverine sites in Kerala, India. Tetrasporangiate plants were observed in field collections from the Periyar River and Chalakkudy River. The Chalakkudy isolate did not reproduce in culture but the Periyar isolate developed abundant tetrasporangial so...

The question of whether morphological differences observed in specimens is due to multiple species or one variable species has always caused problems for taxonomists. The most recent taxonomic treatment of the 'Bostrychia tenella species complex' suggested that much of the morphological variation represented a single highly variable entity. We used...

A new macroscopic riverine red algal species, Lemanea manipurensis sp. nov. (Batrachospermales) is described from Manipur in northeast India. It has a sparsely branched, pseudoparenchymatous thallus with a single, central axial filament that lacks cortical filaments. Spermatangia occur generally in isolated, low and indistinct patches or form an al...

The generic circumscriptions in the family Scytosiphonaceae are complex, as they are poorly defined morphologically and molecular work is limited. The genus Iyengaria has been rarely studied and its genetic distinctness is still in doubt. Here we describe Iyengaria quadriseriata sp. nov. from Tamil Nadu, India that has a large hollow prostrate cush...

Defining species boundaries is important to address evolutionary questions and understand true biodiversity in a region. Determining the actual number of species is not trivial, and numerous species-delimitation algorithms have been developed and extensively applied to a wide range of organisms. The cosmopolitan red-algal genus Bostrychia has been...

Small red algae, especially those previously referred to as 'primitive' are often overlooked, but can be quite abundant. These 'primitive' red algae are now placed in several classes distinct from the Florideophyceae, for example the Stylon-ematophyceae. A brownish-red filamentous alga was collected from a sandy tide pool at Cape Tribulation, Queen...

Cephaleuros parasiticus and C. virescens were collected from Kerala and Tamil Nadu, India. Macroscopic and micro-scopic features were observed and their comparative features were discussed. The lesions of C. parasiticus occur on the upper and lower leaf surfaces although zoosporangia form only on the lower surface. The thalli grow subepidermally an...

Caloglossa ogasawaraensis is one of the most widespread species of its genus, having been reported from marine to freshwater habitats in tropical to temperate regions of both hemispheres. Because little phenotypic variation has been reported for this species, we investigated genetic, physiological, and/or morphological variations in 18 strains of C...

Note Copyright © 2014 The Korean Society of Phycology 1 http://e-algae.kr pISSN: Cephaleuros parasiticus and C. virescens were collected from Kerala and Tamil Nadu, India. Macroscopic and micro-scopic features were observed and their comparative features were discussed. The lesions of C. parasiticus occur on the upper and lower leaf surfaces althou...

Explaining spatial patterns of biological organisation remains a central challenge for biogeographic studies. In marine systems, large-scale ocean currents can modify broad-scale biological patterns by simultaneously connecting environmental (e.g. temperature, salinity and nutrients) and biological (e.g. amounts and types of dispersed propagules) p...

The mangrove algal flora of Guam and the Federated States of Micronesia has been poorly explored. We add to our knowledge of this region by observations of collections from these regions. This paper presents new and additional re-cords of: Rhodophyta-Acrochaetium globosum, Colaconema sp., Caulacanthus indicus, Bostrychia moritziana / B. radi-cans,...

A morphologically distinct lineage within the Bostrychia moritziana-B. radicans species complex is described as a new species. Bostrychia anomala has thalli with branched monosiphonous filaments with apical cell divisions. The species has terminal tetrasporangial stichidia, each subtending cell bearing tetrasporangia with 2 cover cells. Discharged...

Twenty-five specimens of the freshwater red alga Compsopogon were collected from locations in North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Australasia and Oceania, and from an aquarium, with the goal of determining genetic diversity among specimens and ascertaining the number of phylogenetic species. Specimens were morphologically identified as havi...

Twenty-five specimens of the freshwater red alga Compsopogon were collected from locations in North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Australasia and Oceania, and from an aquarium, with the goal of determining genetic diversity among specimens and ascertaining the number of phylogenetic species. Specimens were morphologically identified as havi...

Studies on the crustose brown algae are relatively few despite a long history of studies conducted since the 1800s, with temperate species forming the bulk of these studies. There is a need for more focus on crustose brown algae particularly in the tropics as they are generally different from those in the temperate regions. Taxonomic confusion aris...

The descriptions of galls, or tumors, in red algae have been sparse. Ktzing (1865) observed possible galls of Bostrychia but only presented a drawing. Intensive culture observations of hundreds of specimens of the genus Bostrychia over many years have revealed that galls appeared in only a small subset of our unialgal cultures of B. kelanensis, Bos...

In preparing a bibliographic check-list on freshwater red algae of India, we noted that nomenclatural changes are necessary for nine taxa currently placed in Acrochaetium-Audouinella-Chantransia complex and Batrachospermum sensu lato. These are Audouinella desikacharyi nom. nov., A. keralayensis (Jose & Patel) comb. nov., Kumanoa balakrishnanii (Ch...

Cephaleuros parasiticus and C. virescens were collected from Kerala and Tamil Nadu, India. Macroscopic and microscopic features were observed and their comparative features were discussed. The lesions of C. parasiticus occur on the upper and lower leaf surfaces although zoosporangia form only on the lower surface. The thalli grow subepidermally and...

A new habitat and a new chlorophyll (Chl) d-containing cyanobacterium belonging to the genus Acaryochloris are reported in this study. Hyperspectral microscopy showed the presence of Chl d-containing microorganisms in epiphytic biofilms on a red alga (Gelidium caulacantheum) colonizing the pneumato-phores of a temperate mangrove (Avicennia marina)....

Although the systematics of Caloglossa has been intensely investigated, the species diversity of the genus is not yet fully understood. Comparative chloroplast-encoded rbcL and nuclear LSU rDNA sequence analyses, combined with morphological observations, reveal new records and two new species for the Americas. The species, previously identified as...

A novel unicellular red alga collected from a mangrove area on Iriomote Island in southwest Japan is described as Bulboplastis apyrenoidosa gen. et sp. nov. The cells are spherical, mean 11.2 mm in diameter, and surrounded by a thick mucilaginous sheath. The grayishgreen chloroplast has many lobes extending throughout the cell and lacks a pyrenoid....

The algae of El Salvador have received limited attention. We combined collections from the mangroves of El Salvador and neighboring southern Mexico, and used culture studies and molecular analysis to gain insights into the diversity in this poorly explored region. Bostrychia montagnei, Caloglossa apomeiotica, and Caloglossa ogasawaraensis were newl...

Rhodachlya hawaiiana Kurihara, J. A. West, Conklin et A.R. Sherwood sp. nov. is described based on cultured material from the island of Hawaii as the second member of the genus Rhodachlya. The pit plug ultrastructure of this alga is characterized by the presence of inner and outer cap layers but lacking a cap membrane between the layers, which is a...

The Erythropeltidales are a ubiquitous group of red algae in the class Compsopogonophyceae. While their presence in the wild is often evident their taxonomy is frequently problematic. We approached the diversity of the group in northern Brittany, France by establishing unialgal cultures to find consistent characters and molecular methods to support...

The marine unicellular red algal genus Rhodella was established in 1970 by L. V. Evans with a single species R. macu-lata based on nuclear projections into the pyrenoid. Porphyridium violaceum was described by P. Kornmann in 1965 and transferred to Rhodella by W. Wehrmeyer in 1971 based on plastid features and the non-parietal position of the nucle...

Living cells of field-collected specimens of the giant-celled marine green alga Chaetomorpha coliformis (Montagne) Kutzing were found to have birefringent cellular inclusions whose composition was determined to be calcium oxalate on the basis of their reactions to diagnostic chemical solubility tests and the Yasue cytochemical staining procedure. T...

Our previous study revealed that apomixis, recycling of tetrasporophytes, can be generated through outcrossing between genetically divergent entities of Caloglossa monosticha M. Kamiya, though such apomicts have never been found in nature. In the case of C. leprieurii (Mont.) G. Martens, the most widespread species in this genus, many apomictic str...

The unicellular marine red alga Erythrolobus australicus sp. nov. (Porphyridiophyceae) was isolated into laboratory culture from mangroves in Queensland and New South Wales, Australia. The single multi-lobed red to rose-red plastid has more than one pyrenoid and lacks a peripheral thylakoid. Arrays of small electron dense globules occur along the t...

The phylogeny of morphologically simple algae is problematic due to insufficient morphological characters to aid in distinguishing species and relationships. The problem is further compounded because multiple evolutionary lineages of morphologically similar species occur in most well-sampled biogeographic locations; therefore, location cannot be us...

SUMMARY Previous studies suggested that the biodiversity of the mangrove-associated Bostrychia radicans/Bostrychia moritziana species complex on the Pacific coast of Central America, based on genetic and reproductive data, were low compared with similar areas on the Atlantic coast. Evolutionary scenarios were proposed based on either a recent intro...

Studies of the red algal genus Bostrychia over the last 15 years have made it a model system for many evolutionary processes within red algal species. The combination of newly developed, or first employed methods, in red algal species studies has made Bostrychia�a pioneer genus in intraspecific studies. Bostrychia was the first genus in which a mit...

The red algal genus Caloglossa (Delesseriaceae, Ceramiales) in the New World is represented by Caloglossa leprieurii sensu lato. The earliest name for any species in the genus, other than the basionym Delesseria leprieurii, is Apiarium apiculum. On the basis of comparative morphological data, and rbcL and LSU rDNA sequence analyses, the C. leprieur...

The recognition of broad biogeographic provinces provides an important framework for ecological and conservation biological research. Marine biologists have long recognized distinct biogeographic provinces in southern Australia, primarily on the basis of qualitative differences in intertidal species assemblages. Here we provide an a priori test for...

The genus Rosenvingea is well known in the tropics. Four species have been reported from Pacific Mexico: R. floridana, R. antillarum, R. intricata and R. sanctae-crucis. We collected a plant (Boca del Cielo, Chiapas) that we identified as Rosenvingea orientalis, a species not previously reported from Pacific Mexico. We were able to characterize the...

Two new marine unicellular red algae are described: Timspurckia oligopyrenoides gen. et sp. nov. isolated from southeastern Australia and Erythrolobus madagascarensis sp. nov. isolated from Madagascar. Timspurckia oligopyrenoides cells are spherical, 7-11 mu m in diameter, greyish red to reddish brown and surrounded by a conspicuous fibrillar matri...

Allopatric speciation is the most widely accepted model proposed for speciation: once a population is divided by extrinsic barriers, genetic flow is interrupted between these disjunct subpopulations, and reproductive isolation is established as a by-product of the accumulation of genetic changes in these isolated populations. According to the biolo...

The Erythropeltidales are a common group of small, mostly epiphytic, marine red algae. Morphologically, they can be divided into two main groups: species that are crustose and species that are upright. Being morphologically simple, generic boundaries and evolutionary trends are controversial or unknown. We focus our molecular phylogenetic analysis...

Two new genera of red algae, Madagascaria erythrocladioides West et Zuccarello and Pseudoerythrocladia kornmannii West et Kikuchi (Erythropeltidales, Compsopogonophyceae, Rhodophyta), were previously described using molecular analysis and confocal microscopy of isolates in laboratory culture. We examined the ultrastructure of both genera to compare...

SUMMARYA new unicellular red alga, Corynoplastis japonica gen. et sp. nov., is described from Tobishima, Japan. Cells are spherical, 18–33 µm in diameter, pale purple to brownish red and surrounded by a mucilaginous sheath. A single chloroplast with many lobes extends from the cell periphery to the cell center. A peripheral thylakoid is present. A...

A holocarpic, oomycete endoparasite of the marine red alga Bostrychia moritziana collected in Madagascar and identified as Olpidiopsis sp. did not conform to morphological descriptions of any species of Olpidiopsis and had a host range that differed from that of known Olpidiopsis pathogens of red algae. We further tested the host range of this para...

Molecular analyses of the 18S ribosomal RNA gene and the psbA gene of Membranella nitens and Smithora naiadum from Pacific North America show that both taxa are genetically identical. The variability of the characters distinguishing these two genera has not been well documented. The generic name Smithora Hollenberg has priority over Membranella Hol...

The Stylonematophyceae is an early diverging red algal class that contains organisms in which sexual reproduc-tion has not been reported. Previous studies have hypothesized a single copy of the actin gene in this class. Amplification of the actin gene in members of the Stylonematophyceae, including several isolates of Sty-lonema alsidii, reveals a...

A comparison of the proteome of eight genetically well-characterized isolates of the Bostrychia radicans (Mont.) Mont./B. moritziana (Sond. ex Kütz.) J. Agardh species complex was undertaken to establish if genetic relationships among them can be determined using proteome data. Genetic distances were calculated on the basis of common and distinct s...

The red algal unicell Rhodella cyanea (Rhodellophyceae) was reinvestigated. The cell ultrastructure is clearly dissimilar to that of the two other Rhodella species, R. maculata Evans and R. violacea (Kornmann) Wehrmeyer. Consequently, we have established Neorhodella gen. nov. Neorhodella cyanea possesses a large parietal chloroplast with numerous l...

Bostrychia is a widespread genus and has recently received considerable molecular attention, leading to insights into its evolution, and nomenclatural changes. We investigated the species of Bostrychia in New Zealand, to produce an identification key and highlight the nomenclatural changes of these species. We incorporated into a molecular phylogen...

Various red algae lack sexual reproduction and propagate by spore recycling, but it is still unknown how apomixis originates. In previous crossing experiments, we obtained an unusual hybrid of Caloglossa monosticha M. Kamiya through the outcrossing between a male from Australia and a female from Indonesia. This hybrid was morphologically identical...

Collections of marine and freshwater algae were made on Efaté, Vanuatu on 14-16 June 2005. New records and cultures were obtained of the red algae Actinotrichia fragilis, Acrochaetium corymbiferum, Bostrychia moritziana, B. radicans, B. simpliciuscula, B. tenella, Caloglossa vieillardii, C. ogasawaraensis, Chroodactylon ornatum, Colaconema sp., Com...

The foliose red alga Gigartina papillata (C. Ag.) J. Ag. was studied in culture to determine its life history and possible relationship to the life history of Petrocelis middendorffii (Ruprecht) Kjellman. Carpospores cultured from individual female plants gave rise to either crustose Petrocelis-like plants that reproduced by tetraspores, or to anot...

The fine structure of the primary nucleus in Bryopsis hypnoides was compared with that of the primary nucleus in Acetabularia calyculus and Batophora oerstedii. In Bryopsis the mature primary nucleus contains a peripheral reticulum composed of 4–6 layers of 200 A diameter fibrils. The nuclear membrane has numerous nuclear pores that are located adj...

Morphologically, the development of spermatia in Levringiella gardneri and Erythrocystis saccata is identical, although cytologically several differences are evident. Mature spermatia contain 1 or 2 large spermatial vesicles that contain fibrous material, several small mitochondria, some proplastids, and are surrounded by a wall, either single-laye...

The ultrastructure and histochemistry of the refractile, vesiculate cells (“blasenzellen,”“cellules secretrices,”“gland cells”) of Antithamnion defectum Kylin were examined. The refringent vacuolar contents disclosed two components of differing density: an electron opaque, proteinaceous matrix material surrounding cores of irregularly shaped, less...

Ultrastructural studies on tetraspore formation in Levringiella gardneri revealed that 3 stages may be recognized during their formation. The youngest stage consists of a uninucleate tetraspore mother cell with synaptonemal complexes present during early prophase of meiosis I. Mitochondria are aggregated around the nucleus, dictyosome activity is l...