• ALGAE
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.135-144
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• 2002

Scytosiphonaceae is an acetocarpalean brown algal family, that is a recent focus of synstematics and marine biodiversity. We describe Petalonia zosterifolia and Scytosiphon gracilis from Korea for the first time. P. zosterifolia occurred on the East coast, and had flat, linear and solid thalli. S. gracilis was found in Jeju, and had cylindircal to flat and hol-low thalli. However, these two species are so similar that it is difficult to identify by morphology alone. In order to determine if the nuclear DNA reveals the distinctness of both species and to know their phylogenies, the ITS region sequences were newly detrmined in 22 samples of P. zosterifolia, Scytosiphon gracilis, and other three members of the genera from Korea. We found 0.12% variation among samples of P. zosterifolia from different locations, and no variation between S. gracilis samples from diferent years, but extensive interspecific divergences (13.62-22.83%) of each species to other members in Petalonia and Scytosiphon . The ITS sequence dta consistently showed a close relationship between P. zosterifolia and S. gracilis. This result is congruent with morphology and with the published data of plastid rbc and partial nrDNA large subunit gene sequences, and suggests that P. zosterifolia and S. gracilis might have diverged from the most recent common ancestor.