BATHINDA: Marine biologists from the Central University of Punjab (CUP) have discovered a new species of marine green algae from the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, and named the green seaweed Acetabularia jalakanyakae after the goddess of oceans. Jalakanyaka is Sanskrit for mermaid.
The newly discovered algae have caps with intricate designs as if it were the umbrellas of a mermaid. CUP associate professor Felix Bast, who led the study, also said that: “The entire plant is just one gigantic cell with a lone nucleus. Botanically, the condition is called coenocytic. German botanist Joachim Hämmerling’s pioneering work on Acetabularia in 1940s led to the discovery of cellular control functions of the plant nucleus.
Bast, on trip to the Andamans in May 2019, stumbled upon these algae. He said, “At first, I thought it to be Acetabularia acetabulum or a variant but then the cap looked rather unique with intricate designs. I brought back the samples to the laboratory and after more than 18 months of taxonomic work, it turned out to be a new species.”
For describing it as a new species, the research team combined electron microscopy-based morphological assessments with DNA sequence-based phylogenetic analyses. The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) has accepted the paper for publication in the Indian Journal of Geo-Marine Sciences. The co-authors are PhD student Khem Chand Saini, summer intern Aravind Madhu, former vice-chancellor R K Kohli, and Bathinda DAV College assistant professor Kriti Gupta.
The Andamans have some of the world’ last remaining healthy coral reefs, which support a host of other organisms, including a rich tapestry of algae. Algal diversity is among the highest in that region but under tremendous stress from looming climate change in the form of rising seawater temperature and ocean acidification.
