Chemotaxonomic Study of spp. (Ceramiales, Rhodophyta) Based on Their Mycosporine-Like Amino Acid Content.

This study presents a chemotaxonomic investigation of the genus through the quantitation of the major mycosporine-like amino acids (MAAs). The presence of some cryptic species had been suggested in the / complex and MAA-profiling in respective samples revealed different chemotypes within this species complex. Another possibly polyphyletic species is ; previous molecular phylogenetic analyses showed four genetic lineages within this species, one of which was recently distinguished as a new species. Phytochemical profiling of those samples used for DNA analyses revealed four different chemotypes, corresponding to the above four lineages and it supports the re-circumscription of the other three lineages. Therefore, mycosporine-like amino acids are considered as suitable chemotaxonomic markers for the reassessment of the classification of . The determination of the MAA patterns in these algae was possible after developing and validating a suitable high-performance liquid chromatography-diode array detector (HPLC-DAD) method.