Monilinema gen. nov., a homocytous genus (Cyanobacteria, Leptolyngbyaceae) from saline-alkaline lakes of Pantanal wetlands, Brazil.

Cyanobacteria morphotypes with simple morphology, mainly thin filamentous homocytous strains, comprise a taxonomically complex group and represent a challenge in systematic studies. However, the polyphasic approach applied nowadays to investigate the cyanobacterial diversity has emerged as a powerful tool to undercover cryptic taxa and to set up a more natural classification system. Yet, studies exploring the cultured diversity of cyanobacteria from extreme tropical environments have paved the way to the discovery of new cyanobacteria taxa, enabling the description of Pantanalinema, Alkalinema, and Cephalothrix as novel genera from saline-alkaline lakes in Pantanal wetlands (Brazil).

Cephalothrix gen. nov. (Cyanobacteria): towards an intraspecific phylogenetic evaluation by multilocus analyses.

For more than a decade, the taxonomy of the Phormidiaceae has been problematic, since morphologically similar organisms represent phylogenetically distinct entities. Based on 16S rRNA gene sequence analyses, the polyphyletic genus Phormidium and other gas-vacuolated oscillatorioids appear scattered throughout the cyanobacterial tree of life. Recently, several studies have focused on understanding the oscillatorioid taxa at the generic level.