Vyacheslav Nikulin

Federal Scientific Center of the East Asia Terrestrial Biodiversity FEB RAS · Laboratory of Botany

Sedum is the most species-rich and taxonomically complex member of the family Crassulaceae. The genus comprises ca. 420 species displaying notable morphological diversity and homoplasy of many features traditionally used to delineate crassulacean genera therefore it is impossible to characterize Sedum phenotypically. Artificial nature of Sedum was...

Limited data are available on genetic structures of the herbaceous plant species populations inhabiting mountainous areas of Siberia and Northeastern Asian (Russian Far East). Although this area was not directly impacted by the extensive ice-sheets during the Quaternary, it experienced significant climatic fluctuations that influenced rich local fl...

A Calothrix-like cyanobacterial strain was isolated from a sample collected from the entrance zone of Shumyaschiy Ponor cave, Chelyabinsk Region, South Urals, Russia. This isolate showed diagnostic features of the recently described genus Roholtiella, i.e. chains of arthrospores and thalli not tapering to a hair. Molecular analyses based on 16S rRN...

Present-day information available on the charophyte macroalgae in Egypt, including their phylogenetic affinities, remains largely incomplete. In this study, nine charophyte populations were collected from different aquatic biotopes across the Egyptian Western-Desert Oases and Sinai Peninsula. All populations were investigated using an integrative p...

Several Chara L. species have ‘unfinished’ morphogenesis that is recognizable because of their imperfect stem and branchlet cortication compared to the perfectly corticated species. Chara denudata A. Braun, described from South Africa, is one of these species, assumed for a long time to be conspecific with C. dissoluta A. Braun ex Leonhardi, as des...

The diatom Nitzschia acidoclinata is a widespread eurybiontic alga. There is little information on its life cycle properties and cardinal points. To fill this gap, we analyzed six N. acidoclinata clones from a range of habitats in Asiatic Russia regarding their genetic diversity, morphology, mor-phometry, geography, and ecology. A comparison of 15...

Nitella sonderi A.Braun is newly reported from the Patagonian Plateau, Argentina. This species was only reliably known from Australia until now. The morphological and genetic studies carried out here found no difference between Argentinian and Australian specimens. The species is dioecious, mucous-bearing on fertile whorls, with two to three-forked...

Many filamentous and sarcinoid terrestrial or freshwater green algae that were previously assigned to the Chlorophyceae are members of lineages belonging to the class Ulvophyceae. One of these lineages is the Planophila-clade (Ulotrichales). Some genera in this clade share similar morphology: cell packages forming branched pseudofilaments, uniseria...

European paddy fields harbour a morphologically and genetically unusual charophyte that is distant from any other European species. The new species, Chara oryzae from Mediterranean rice fields, was described using an integrated approach, including scanning electron microscopy and molecular phylogenetics. The combination of monoecy, a triplostichous...

The Altai Mountains of central Asia are biologically rich and comprise a wide diversity of ecosystems and lineages, including numerous endemic vascular plant species. Here we provide an updated checklist of the endemic vascular flora of the Altai Mountains with more taxa and higher geographic resolution than previously reported, as well as first mo...

Volcanic activity has a significant influence on the development of terrestrial ecosystems, including the Kamchatka Peninsula. We aimed to study the terrestrial algoflora of the Mutnovsky and Gorely volcanoes based on the use of clonal cultures of algae and cyanobacteria, and phenotypic and molecular genetic analyses. A total of 48 taxa were identi...

Three strains of a coccoid green alga were isolated from soil samples collected at the Shiveluch Volcano on the Kamchatka Peninsula. SSU rRNA gene sequence comparisons resolved the strains as members of the genus Eremochloris in the class Trebouxiophyceae. Analyses based on the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) rRNA secondary structure revealed tha...

A new species, Chara lipkinii, was described based on specimens from the Mediterranean, Israel. Dioecy, 10-13 branchlets in a whorl, complete tylacanthous to isostichous displostichous axial cortex with very short solitary spine cells, hardly visible diplostephanous bistipulate short obtuse stipulodes, frequently appearing as haplostephanous, in co...

Comparative karyomorphological analyses of six out of the eight white-flowered species of Eranthis sect. Shibateranthis have been carried out. All studied specimens of E. byunsanensis, E. lobulata, E. pinnatifida and E. stellata had a somatic chromosome number 2n = 16 with basic chromosome number x = 8. On the contrary, E. tanhoensis and E. sibiric...

New cyanobacterium Aliterella vladivostokensis sp. nov. (Aliterellaceae, Chroococcidiopsidales), isolated from temperate monsoon climate zone (Vladivostok, Russia) Abstract A new coccoid cyanobacterium Aliterella vladivostokensis sp. nov. was described from an urban aerophytic habitat in a temperate monsoon climate (Vladivostok, Russia) using a pol...

Mayamaea arida (Bock) Lange-Bertalot is a rare species, previously recorded from four locations in Europe only. The aim of this study is to report additional molecular, phenotypic and geographic data on M. arida. The strain of this species was isolated from the soil sample collected on 04.08.2018 in Iturup Island (Sakhalin Region, Russia) in Haplic...

Chlorella‐like green algae that reproduce only asexually by immotile autospores or motile zoospores are the most typical inhabitants of non‐aquatic environments. They have a simple morphology that hampers their differentiation, but algae of such habit represent a diverse array of lineages, which are mostly in the classes Chlorophyceae and Trebouxio...

This paper presents four new species for the Russian Far East identified using a polyphasic approach in soils and grounds of the Shiveluch, Mutnovsky and in the saddle of Avachinsky and Koryaksky volcanoes (Kamchatka, Russia): Cyanobacteria — Stenomitos tremulus, Chlorophyta — Bracteacoccus bullatus, Chromochloris zofingiensis, Tetradesmus bajacali...

Nitella singaporensis is described as a new species based on specimens from Singapore. This study provides detailed examination of the fully mature plant. The species is described here using multiple methods including scanning electron microscopy and molecular phylogenetics. Re-examination of the type specimen of N. caespitosa, the most similar spe...

The diatom Nitzschia palea is a widespread eurybiontic alga that inhabits the benthos of freshwater ponds and watercourses, soils and caves. This species has a potential for biotechnological applications; therefore, knowledge on its biology is important. Although the species has been studied quite extensively, comprehensive information on its life...

Here we present the analysis of phylogenetic relationships within the tribe Telephieae (Sempervivoideae, Crassulaceae) based on ITS rDNA sequence comparisons, and outline the diversification time history of major subdivisions of the tribe. In contrast to earlier phylogenetic studies. our data show that Meterostachys is a part of a robust clade of t...

Orostachys (Crassulaceae) is a small genus of succulent plants having a predominantly East Asian distribution. Recent DNA sequence comparisons revealed polyphyletic nature of the genus and found distant relationship between its infrageneric taxa. Here we present the first molecular phylogeny of Orostachys subsection Appendiculatae based on a large...