The problem of Cyanobacteria cryptic speciation in the Arctic region
Cyanobacteria are the most abundant photosynthetic organisms in the Arctic. A simple morphology with a few diagnostics features, together with ecological plasticity complicate their species identification. The use of unialgal cultures with subsequent molecular analyses could reveal cryptic diversity of some cyanobacteria taxa. In this article, we studied a number of difficult-to-identify strains of cyanobacteria isolated from the Arctic (Svalbard archipelago) and mountain-tundras (Khibiny and Subpolar Urals) from terrestrial and near-water habitats. The strains are stored in the collections of cyanobacteria of the Institute of Biology of the Komi Scientific Center (SYKOA) and the Polar-Alpine Botanical Garden Institute (KPABG). The article gives the morphological characteristics of the studied strains: the size of the filaments, the shape of trichomes, the presence of nodules and necridic cells, the form of terminal cells. The studied strains of cyanobacteria were characterized by similar morphological structures. Their reliable identification only on the basis of morphology was impossible. The analyzed strains have a fairly simple structure and according to morphological characteristics belong to Leptolyngbya s.l. Exploring strains were tested using nucleotide sequence data of 16S rRNA and 16S-23S ITS. This made it possible to clarify their genus affiliation. Stenomitos sp. SYKOA-C-003-10, Nodosilineasp. KPABG-3220, and Droutiella sp. SYKOA-C-002-10 appear to be new for science species gathered in high Arctic.