Chemotaxonomic Study of Bostrychia spp. (Ceramiales, Rhodophyta) Based on Their Mycosporine-Like Amino Acid Content

This study presents a chemotaxonomic investigation of the genusBostrychiathrough the quantitation of the major mycosporine-like amino acids (MAAs). The presence of some cryptic species had been suggested in theB. moritziana/B. radicanscomplex and MAA-profiling in respective samples revealed different chemotypes within this species complex. Another possibly polyphyletic species isBostrychia simpliciuscula; previous molecular phylogenetic analyses showed four genetic lineages within this species, one of which was recently distinguished as a new species. Phytochemical profiling of those samples used for DNA analyses revealed four different chemotypes, corresponding to the above four lineages and it supports the re-circumscription of the other threeB. simpliciusculalineages. Therefore, mycosporine-like amino acids are considered as suitable chemotaxonomic markers for the reassessment of the classification ofB. simpliciuscula. The determination of the MAA patterns in these algae was possible after developing and validating a suitable high-performance liquid chromatography-diode array detector (HPLC-DAD) method.