Sequences and phylogeny analysis of <Emphasis Type="Italic">rbcL</Emphasis> gene in marine chlorophyta

The rbcL gene of Ulva pertusa,Enteromorpha prolifera and Monostroma grevillei was amplified,sequenced and analyzed.By comparing the rbcL sequences with seven other Ulvales species retrieved from GenBank,the sequence divergences and the phyletic evolution were analyzed and the phylogenetic tree was constructed.From the phylogenetic tree,it can be found that U.pertusa,E.prolifera and U.californica group in one branch,while E.compressa,U.rigida and U.fenestrata cluster in another clade.Obviously,unlike the Enteomorpha species,the Ulva species do not gather in one branch.Therefore Ulva and Enteomorpha might be affiliates of one genus.E.compressa and E.intestinalis gathered together,which coincided with the morphological characters.However,the thallus of U.pertusa is thick and with many holes,which is different from E.prolifera in morphology.They cluster together in the phylogenetic tree with a genetic distance of 0.005.The results indicate that Ulva and Enteromorpha are not distinguished strictly.