MORPHOLOGICAL AND PHYLOGENETIC DIVERSITY OF CYANOBACTERIA IN FOUR HOT SPRINGS OF IRAN

Hot springs have been a subject of intense discussion for biologists in the last decades. Thermophilic cyanobacteria are scientifically valuable for their analogy to the ancient life forms on earth and also as a source of thermostable biocompounds. Exploration of their biodiversity is an important step towards these goals. In a revision of the cyanobacteria in hot springs of Iran, four hot springs in the Hormozgan (Bandar Abbas) and Mazandaran provinces of Iran were sampled from October ۲۰۱۱ to July ۲۰۱۲. In total ۴۳ species belonging to ۲۰ genera, ۱۱ families and ۵ orders of the planktonic cyanobacteria were identified. Among these taxa Chroococcus with ۷, Oscillatoria and Phormidium with۵ species found to be more predominant and noticeable among other genera. All of these taxa are new records for studied hot springs. We developed a combined molecular and morphological approach to identification of cyanobacteria. In this study seventeen populations and ۱۳ morphological characters were analyzed. Molecular study based on ۱۶S rRNA gene sequence does not disrupt morphological information and it confirms the separation of studied taxa according to morphological characters.

Keywords:

cyanobacteria , hot spring , morphological diversity , ۱۶S rRNA , phylogeny