ULTRASTRUCTURE AND PHYLOGENETIC RELATIONSHIPS OF CHAETOPELTIDALES ORD. NOV. (CHLOROPHYTA, CHLOROPHYCEAE)

Vegetative cells and zoospores of Hormotilopsis gelatinosa Trainor & Bold, H. tetravacuolaris Arce & Bold, Planophila terrestris Groover & Hofstetter, and Phyllogloea fimbriata (Korchikov) Silva were examined by transmission electron microscopy. All cells had pyrenoids traversed by cytoplasmic channels. Zoospores were quadriflagellate and had essentially cruciate flagellar apparatuses. Scales were present on free-swimming zoospores. These features are essentially identical to those of Chaetopeltis sp. and are dissimilar to those of other described green algae. The new order Chaetopeltidales is created to accommodate the genera Chaetopeltis, Hormotilopsis, Planophila sensu Groover & Hofstetter, Phyllogloea, Dicranochaete, and Schizochlamys, organisms previously scattered among the orders Tetrasporales, Chlorococcales, Chlorosarcinales, and Chaetophorales. Members of the order are closely related to the ancestral chlorophycean flagellate genus Hafniomonas, may be ancestral with respect to other Chlorophyceae, and may also be closely related to the ulvophycean order Ulotrichales.