Endoplura gyeokpoensis sp. nov . and E. limpeticola sp. nov . (Ralfsiales, Phaeophyceae), two new crustose brown algae from Korea

ABSTRACTEndoplura gyeokpoensis sp. nov. and E. limpeticola sp. nov. from Korea are described based on molecular and morphological analyses. The crustose brown algal genus Endoplura previously comprised three species: E. aurea, E. jejuensis and E. koreana. Our phylogenetic analyses inferred from rbcL and concatenated rbcL and COI-5P data revealed that E. gyeokpoensis sp. nov. and E. limpeticola sp. nov. are placed in the Endoplura clade with robust bootstrap support and Bayesian posterior probabilities. Endoplura gyeokpoensis is characterized by small crustose thalli, thallus outline with a lighter margin, and 2–4 plurangia terminated by 2–3 sterile cells. Endoplura limpeticola is distinguished by epizoic crustose thalli on limpets, thick thalli up to 751 μm, thallus outline with a darker margin, multicellular rhizoids, and two plurangia terminated by 2–3 sterile cells. Our study shows that the two new Endoplura species are molecularly and morphologically distinguished from each other as well as from the congeners.KEYWORDS: COI-5PEpizoicMorphologyPhylogenyrbcLTaxonomy ACKNOWLEDGEMENTSWe are grateful to Dr. Shinya Uwai for his valuable comments on the article and to two anonymous reviewers for improving the manuscript.DISCLOSURE STATEMENTNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.Supplementary InformationSupplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/00318884.2023.2247713Additional informationFundingThis study was supported by the Basic Science Research Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Education (2021R1I1A2059577), by the Ministry of Ocean and Fisheries (Marine Biotics Project, 20210469), and by the National Marine Biodiversity Institute of Korea (the management of Marine Fishery Bio-resources Center 2023) to Tae Oh Cho. This research was also supported by the Basic Science Research Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Education (2021R1I1A1A01051909) to Boo Yeon Won.