Polyphasic emended description of the filamentous prochlorophyte Prochlorothrix scandica Skulberg 2008

Abstract: Chlorophyll b -containing, phycobiliprotein-less cyanobacterium (“prochlorophyte”) Prochlorothrix scandica Skulberg 2008 represents the second species of the genus Prochlo-rothrix . Distinction between the strains P. scandica NIVA-8/90 and Prochlorothrix hollandica PCC 9006 (CCAP 1490/1 T ) is based predominantly on genomic DNA properties. The degree of DNA reassociation of the two strains is 5 %. Compared to P. hollandica, P. scandica possesses an additional rrn operon. In addition, there is a distinct polymorphism of the highly iterated short palindromes (Hip1). Among the pheno-typic features different in the two species are cell morphology, growth temperature optimum and fatty acids content. Keywords: polyphasic taxonomy, prochlorophytes, cyanobacteria, ITS, Hip1, Prochlorothrix, Prochlorothrix scandica The GenBank accession number for the single 16S−23S ITS sequence of Prochlo-rothrix hollandica PCC 9006 T is HQ316172 and the accession numbers for the two 16S−23S ITS sequences of