Genetic affinities and biogeography of putative Levantine-endemic seaweed Treptacantha rayssiae (Ramon) M.Mulas, J.Neiva & A.Israel, comb. nov. (Phaeophyceae)

Cystoseira sensu lato C.Agardh (Ochrophyta) forests are important habitat formers in the Mediterranean Sea, but they have mostly been studied in the western basin where many species are under decline due to human pressures. In the eastern basin, where fewer species occur, Cystoseira rayssiae Ramon was described in the year 2000 as an endemic species, based on morphological characteristics from herbaria samples collected on the Israeli coast. No further investigations have been conducted on this peculiar species since, but recently it has been recorded in contiguous Lebanon and outside the Mediterranean. Our work was aimed at confirming the taxonomic validity and endemic nature of this species, including its position among recently split Cystoseira sensu stricto, Carpodesmia Greville and Treptacantha Kützing genera, by sequencing the mitochondrial COI gene and by examining morphological characterics using samples from three different sites in northern Israel. Nothwithstanding considerab...