Check List 16(3): 513-519, doi: 10.15560/16.3.513
Range extension of Mesophyllum erubescens (Foslie) Me. Lemoine (Hapalidiales, Rhodophyta): first report from mesophotic rhodolith beds in the northwestern Gulf of Mexico offshore Louisiana and Texas, including the Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary
expand article infoJoseph L. Richards‡, Ronald P. Kittle III‡, Jaida R. Abshire‡, Dijel Fuselier‡, William E. Schmidt‡, Carlos F. D. Gurgel§, Suzanne Fredericq‡
‡ University of Louisiana at Lafayette, Lafayette, United States of America§ Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Florianopolis, Brazil

Corresponding author: Joseph L. Richards ( joer207@gmail.com )

Academic editor: Guilherme Henrique Pereira Filho
© Joseph L. Richards, Ronald P. Kittle III, Jaida R. Abshire, Dijel Fuselier, William E. Schmidt, Carlos F. D. Gurgel, Suzanne Fredericq.
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Citation: Richards JL, Kittle III RP, Abshire JR, Fuselier D, Schmidt WE, Gurgel CFD, Fredericq S (2020) Range extension of Mesophyllum erubescens (Foslie) Me. Lemoine (Hapalidiales, Rhodophyta): first report from mesophotic rhodolith beds in the northwestern Gulf of Mexico offshore Louisiana and Texas, including the Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary. Check List 16(3): 513-519. https://doi.org/10.15560/16.3.513
Open Access
Abstract

DNA sequence analysis of plastid-encoded psbA and UPA, mitochondrion-encoded COI, and nuclear-encoded LSU rDNA of rhodolith-forming crustose coralline algal specimens from the northwestern Gulf of Mexico reveals that Mesophyllum erubescens (Foslie) Me. Lemoine is present in mesophotic rhodolith beds offshore Louisiana and Texas at 39–57 m depth. Morpho-anatomical characters viewed with SEM support the identification of these specimens. Mesophyllum erubescens is reported for the first time offshore Louisiana at Ewing Bank, the Louisiana–Texas border at Bright Bank, and Texas in the Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary.

Keywords
CCA, COI, coralline algae, DNA, LSU rDNA, psbA, UPA