• ALGAE
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.153-160
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• 2004

The intergeneric relationship of Staurastrum complex including genus Arthrodesmus and Xanthidium was studied on the basis of mitochondrial coxⅢ sequence variation. Teiling's suggestion that Staurodesmus was an independent genus apart from genus Staurastrum, Arthrodesmus and Cosmarium was also reevaluated. The phylogeny inferred from coxⅢ gene was not consistent with morphological characteristics of Staurastrum complex. Genus Staurastrum was closely related to genus Xanthidium in the phylogenetic analysis of coxⅢ, but distant to genus Staurodesmus. The taxonomic treatment of genus Staurodesmus as an independent entity could not be determined, because Staurodesmus did not firm a monophyletic Glade. Therefore, genus Staurodesmus could not be treated as an independent genus as Prescott et al. (1982) claimed.