부산대학교 도서관

A marine ulvalean species (Chlorophyta) was collected from the eastern coast of Korea. This species is morphologically characterized by a distromatic, dark to medium green and mostly irregularly orbicular or irregularly expanded thallus with entire or undulate margin without serrations. Vegetative cells are irregularly polygonal with distinctly rounded corners in shape, and have chloroplast completely covering the outer cell wall and one to two pyrenoids per cell. In a phylogenetic tree based on ITS (Internal Transcribed Spacer) sequences, this Korean alga nests in the same clade with Ulva sublittoralis, as a sister clade of U. californica, U. flexuosa and U. tanneri, which share the irregularly orbicular or expanded thallus normally without teeth cells. The genetic divergence between them is intraspecific within Ulva. Accordingly, it is identified as U. sublittoralis based on the morphological and molecular data. This is the first record of Ulva sublittoralis in the Korean marine algal flora.