Morphology and molecular phylogeny of Aureophycus aleuticus gen. et sp nov (Laminariales, Phaeophyceae) from the Aleutian Islands

A previously unknown species of kelp was collected on Kagamil Island, Aleutian Islands. The species can be easily distinguished from any known laminarialean alga: the erect sporophytic thallus is composed of a thin lanceolate blade attaining similar to 2 m in height and similar to 0.50 m in width, without midrib, and the edge of the blade at the transition zone is thickened to form a V-shape; the stipe is solid and flattened, slightly translucent, attaining similar to 1 m in length; the holdfast is semidiscoidal and up to 0.15 m in diameter. Anatomically, the blade has the typical trumpet-shaped hyphae characteristic of the Chordaceae and derived foliose laminarialean species (i.e., Alariaceae/Laminariaceae/Lessoniaceae). No hair pits or mucilaginous structures were observed on the blade or stipe. No fertile sporophytes were collected, but abundant juvenile sporophytes were observed in the field. In the molecular phylogenetic analyses using chloroplast rbcL gene, nuclear ITS1-5.8S-ITS2 rDNA, and mitochondria nad6 DNA sequences, the new species (Aureophycus aleuticus gen. et sp. nov.) showed a closer relationship with Alariaceae of conventional taxonomy, or the Group 1 clade of Lane et al. (2006) including Alaria and related taxa than with other groups, although the species was not clearly included in the group. Aureophycus may be a key species in elucidating the evolution of the Alariaceae within the Laminariales. Because of the lack of information on reproductive organs and insufficient resolution of the molecular analyses, we refrain from assigning the new species to a family, but we place the new species in a new genus in the Laminariales.