黄海西部细弱刚毛藻（刚毛藻目，绿藻门）的表型可塑性与分类——暗示基因序列作为DNA条形码的可行性

由于广泛的形态可塑性，导致刚毛藻属物种的分类仍存在不确定性。作为分布较广的物种之一，细弱刚毛藻已报道了许多变异类型，这为对其鉴定造成了困难。针对这个问题，本研究通过采集于黄海西部相似于细弱刚毛藻的9个样品，分析了它们的形态多样性。一些样品具有明显的可变鉴定特征，难于利用形态分类准确鉴定。因此，采用18S rDNA和 ITS序列对它们进行了分子鉴定。其中，样品的18S rDNA序列相似度为99.6%-100%，而ITS的为98.7% -100%。分子数据强烈地支持了形态可变的样品可准确定位为细弱刚毛藻。通过对样品分类特征的比较分析发现，作为分类标准的分枝方式和密度、藻体颜色、藻体高度和质地受环境影响和藻体成熟度而发生较大变化。此外，作为相对稳定的特征，细胞大小在种内水平上也常发生变化。18S rDNA和ITS序列在本种鉴定上的成功应用，表明以DNA条形码为基础的基因序列分析可作为传统形态分类学强有力的辅助方法。

Phenotypic plasticity and taxonomy of Cladophora gracilis (Griffiths) Kützing (Cladophorales, Chlorophyta) in the western Yellow Sea with the implication of its DNA barcode

Due to extensive morphological plasticity, the taxonomy of Cladophora species remains unclear. As one of the widely distributed species, C. gracilis was reported to hold many varieties, which make it difficult to identify the species. This study explored the morphology diversity of nine C. gracilis samples collected along the coast of western Yellow Sea. Some samples showed extremely varied characteristics, by which one cannot classify them correctly. Hence, 18S rDNA and nuclear ribosomal DNA internal transcribed spacer regions (ITS) sequences were employed to delimit species. For 18S rDNA, sequence similarity ranged from 99.6% to 100%. For ITS region, the similarity ranged from 98.7% to 100%. Molecular data strongly suggested that the morphologically heterogeneous samples were actually the same species. Characteristics comparison of the samples revealed that the taxonomy criteria including branching pattern and density, thallus color, height and texture varied widely, influenced by environmental conditions and age of alga. Besides, cell dimensions, as the relatively stable criterion, also exhibited intraspecific variance. Successful application of 18S rDNA and ITS sequences indicated that molecular method can be a powerful assistant as DNA barcodes to traditional morphology taxonomy.