Tolerance of soil algae and cyanobacteria to drought stress.

Tolerance to drought stress in soil crust microorganisms is essential for exploiting suitable organisms for restoring soil. In this study, the responses to drought stress of two drought-tolerant species, a green alga and a cyanobacterium, were compared with those of two non-tolerant green algae. In response to drought stress, induced by treatment with polyethylene glycol, the intracellular proline levels increased and were associated with increases in malondialdehye, pigment contents, and enzyme activities such as superoxide dismutase (SOD) and peroxidase (POD).

Biodiversity of soil algae in the farmlands of mid-Taiwan.

Background: Very little information is available about soil algae in Taiwan. In this study, we investigated for the first time the soil algae inhabiting five types of farmland in mid-Taiwan: rice paddies, vegetable farms, tea plantations, sugar cane farms, and orchards.

Results: Sixty-four taxa belonging to 33 genera of cyanobacteria, diatoms, green algae, and euglenoids were identified on the basis of fine structures observed under optical and electron microscopes and rDNA sequencing.

Morphological and molecular characteristics of Homoeostrichus formosana sp. nov. (Dictyotaceae, Phaeophyceae) from Taiwan.

Background: In the marine brown macroalgae, the morphological characters are highly similar between two widely distributed genera, Homoeostrichus and Zonaria (Dictyotaceae), thereby resulting in the difficulty of exploring their hidden biodiversity. Owing to the help of the molecular tools, it is now easy for scientists to objectively describe a new species in nature. In this study, we make a description on the Homoeostrichus formosana sp.