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Morphology of Trentepohlia annulata isolates. A-C: Isolate from India. D-E: Isolate from former Czechoslovakia. A: Algae growing on the rubber tree bark. B and D: intercalary and apical gametangia. C and E: Axial growth of globular/barrel shaped cells.
Source publication
In 2011, isolated parts in south Indian state of Kerala as well as neighboring Sri Lanka experienced sporadic spell of red colored “blood rain”, cause of which was later attributed to terrestrial subaerial microalgae of the genus Trentepohlia. Green algae of this genus is commonly found living in symbiosis as phycobionts of lichens in the free-livi...
Contexts in source publication
Context 1
... special permission was required for sampling at this location as the site is not part of any protected areas designated by government of India. Algae were found to be growing on the barks of rubber tree Hevea brasiliensis ( Figure 1A). On external morphology, the algae were in reddish-green powdery form. ...
Context 2
... slides of the specimen were observed under an upright microscope (BX53, Olympus, Japan) and microphotographs were taken using a digital camera (EOS 60D, Canon, Japan) attached to the microscope. The algal filaments consisted of linear arranged spherical cells of around 12 µm - resembling streptococcal bacteria albeit the size is being much larger, and color being green ( Figure 1B and 1D). Thalli were irregularly branched, and a few gametangial cells-that can be distinguished from the rest by its large cell size of 21-28 µm-were observed either from intercalary or apical regions. ...
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Sri Lanka is a biologically diverse South Asian island, and together with the Western Ghats (Southern India) is one of the 36 world’s most biologically diverse areas. Here, we investigated the origin and diversification of Rhomphaea and Neospintharus of Sri Lanka using sequences of three genes: mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase I (COI) and 16S rRN...
Citations
... Previous studies have proposed various hypothesis regarding the cause of red rain: (1) involvement of extra-terrestrial influence like atmospheric fragmentation of a fragile cometary meteor with an impact of loud thunder (Bryan, 1926;Kumar et al., 2019;Louis & Kumar, 2006b) (2); plume of dust (Avila et al., 1997(Avila et al., , 2007Loye-Pilot et al., 1986); (3) aplanospores of the algae, Chlamydomonas nivalis (F.A. Bauer) Wille (1903) (Nour-Eddine et al., 1999); (4) presence of algal spores, particularly Trentepohlia sp. (Bast et al., 2015;Sampath et al., 2002). Way back, Earp (1903) analysed a red rain sample and concluded that "the sediment seems to be terrestrial, as a large amount of organic matter, coupled with a small amount of iron found, prohibits theory of meteoric origin". ...
... Edward (1930) suggested the presence of diatoms and shreds of algae in red rain. The molecular similarity of a sub-aerial green algae, Trentepohlia annulata F. Brand (1902) across continents is reported to be an indicator of its clouds over transport (Bast et al., 2015). Bast et al. (2015) compared the similarity of DNA sequences of corticolous Trentepohlia annulata from Kerala, India with that of European species and concluded the reason for red rain is terrestrial. ...
... The molecular similarity of a sub-aerial green algae, Trentepohlia annulata F. Brand (1902) across continents is reported to be an indicator of its clouds over transport (Bast et al., 2015). Bast et al. (2015) compared the similarity of DNA sequences of corticolous Trentepohlia annulata from Kerala, India with that of European species and concluded the reason for red rain is terrestrial. This led to a misconception on Trentepohlia annulata to be the causal for red rain. ...
This scientific article presents a comprehensive exploration of the intriguing ecological phenomenon known as "red rain", observed in the coastal town located at latitude N 11°.61108 and longitude E 75°.57383 in Kerala, India. The study aims to elucidate the origins, characteristics, and potential environmental implications associated with this phenomenon. Through a meticulous descriptive analysis, incorporating microscopic evaluation, DNA-sequencing, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (GC–MS) analysis, and phylogenetic analysis, we deciphered the underlying factors responsible for the distinct red coloration observed in the rain. Our research findings highlight the presence of specific organic compounds, namely psi-psi Carotene 3,4 didehydro-1,2,7′8'-tetrahydro-1-methoxy-2-oxo and psi-psi and- Carotene 3,3',4,4'-tetradehydro1′2' dihydro 1-hydroxy-1'-methoxy in the algae, Trentepohlia abietina, as the primary contributors to the red color observed in the red rain. The research findings contribute to a deeper understanding of this distinctive occurrence and its implications for the local ecosystem in Kerala.
... Several reports on Trentepohlia have been carried out in tropical, subtropical and temperate regions of India (Bruhl & Biswas, 1923;Saxena, 1961;Randhawa & Venkataraman, 1962;Jose & Chowdary, 1980;Krishnamurthy, 2000;Bast et al., 2015;Binoy et al., 2017). In previous studies, four species of Trentepohlia,T. ...
... Kerala is a state in India's tropical western Malabar Coast. A few Trentepohlia species, viz., T. thevalliensis, T. annulata F. Brand and T. dialepta (Nylander) Hariot have been reported from different habitats of Kerala (Panikkar & Sindhu, 1993;Bast et al., 2015;Binoy et al., 2017). The epiphytic alga T. dialepta was reported from southern Western Ghat region of Kerala for the fi rst time (Binoy et al., 2017). ...
Trentepohlia keralensis sp. nov has been investigated and recorded as new to science. In the present study, this corticolous alga was found on the tree bark of Eucalyptus grandis W. Hill ex Maiden. The specimen was terrestrial in nature and able to withstand cold dry winter. The species is found to be new due to its small cell size, hook-like hyaline filament on apical cells, and sporangial size, shape and development. Sporangia were developed acropetally on vegetative cells from intercalary to apical position. The newly identified species was found to be closely related to T. sundarbanensis, T. abietina and T. aurea. The detailed morphology, illustration and taxonomic diagnosis are discussed in the present communication.
... Notes-Earlier it was reported at Kerala from the bark (Bast et al., 2015)., appeared as dark red patches on the leaves of specific host plants; thallus can be seen by the naked eye; found in all seasons, particularly during the summer season. It was absent in the shaded region. ...
Altogether eight species of epiphyllous green algae, Trentepohlia were discovered from the rural and semi-urban areas of Southwestern Ghats by field observations and in-vitro culture investigations. The species found were T. abietina (Flotow & Kutzing) Hansgirg, T. rigidula (J. Muller) Hariot, T. annulata, F. Brand, T. aurea (L.) Martius, T. chapmanii Rindi & Lopez-Bautista, T. dialepta (Nylander) Hariot, T. arborum (C. Agardh) Hariot, and T. gaviensis Binoy T.T., Bhagya M.V. & V.P. Thomas sp.nov. They were isolated and observed from the leaves of fourteen host plants. All the species were seen in the areas exposed to full sunlight. Trentepohlia rigidula and Trentepohlia abietina were also observed from the in vitro culture in Bolds Basal Medium (BBM). Three of the species, T. abietina, T. rigidula, and T. chapmanii and were the new records from Kerala; whereas T. dialepta, T. annulata, T. aurea, and T. arborum have been reported in earlier studies. A new species of Trentepohlia is compared with its closely related T. sundarbanensis (G.G. Satpati & R. Pal), T. arborum (C.Ag.) Hariot and T. abietina (Flotow & Kutzing) Hansgirg and is also described in the present study. So far, the diversity of Trentepohlia in tropical regions, particularly in rural and semi-urban areas of Kerala was quite unknown. The present investigation indicated that the Southwestern Ghats region of Kerala represents a major habitat zone of epiphyllous algae, particularly Trentepohlia which demands further extensive investigations in the area to explore the complete report of the entire diversity of algae.
... Come to the era of phylolinguistics, which uses celebrated methods of molecular phylogenetics [11] to analyze linguistic "cognate" (=homologous) datasets. Phylolinguistics keep on enlightening the field of historical linguistics to divulge cryptic evolutionary relationships of languages in the similar fashion how molecular phylogenetics help in divulging evolutionary relationships of organisms [for example [12][13][14][15][16][17]. Molecular phylogenetics is such a robust tool that can do much more than revealing the evolutionary relationships; it can predict the ancestral states and can calculate the time since divergence-the time calibration of phylograms. ...
Evolutionary patterns of languages and organisms have surprising similarity, as Darwin famously captured by what he termed as “Curious Parallelism.” While traditional comparative and historical linguistic methods such as detailed analysis of cognate correspondences reveal similarities between languages and group them into linguistic families like how Carl Linnaeus grouped organisms into taxonomical hierarchies based on overall similarity-an approach known as phenetic clustering, this will not help to answer questions such as “when did Proto-Dravidian split to Proto-South Dravidian and Proto-South-Central Dravidian?” and so on. Conventional methods for dating linguistic trees such as glottochronology are severely flawed such that these have now been largely discredited. Proposed in this invited editorial is the direct extension of the molecular clock hypothesis and time-calibration techniques of molecular phylogenetics to the field of phylolinguistics. For ‘calibration checkpoints’, ancient dated texts, as well as dated and reliable historical information (such as Cro-Magnon migration to Europe etc.), can be employed. Also deliberated here is a call to make use of Maximum Parsimony-based approaches for the ancient character-state reconstruction, for reconstructing long-lost languages.
... For example, by phylogenetic reconstruction of HIV strains -that evolve with each new infection leaving certain relics of the past, a dentist in Florida was found guilty of deliberately infecting the virus to his patients [2]. Research from my own group have revealed in 2015 that sporadic episodes of the "blood rain" phenomenon, reported since time immemorial and even can be found in Homer's Iliad, was due to the spores of subareal green microalgae Trentepohlia annulata, and that the strain of this algae from South India and that from Central Europe had such a DNA sequence homology to have it introduced very recently [3]. Currently phylogenetics occupy the center stage of practical evolutionary biology for tracing the evolutionary legacy of varied subjects including the originally-intended biological species, and products of scientific ingenuity such as gene expression profiles of microarray data (transcriptomics), metastatic clones in cancer, bioactive compounds in medicinal chemistry and even languages in comparative and historical linguistics. ...
Since its inception seventy-five years ago, the field of phylogenetics have steadily been expanding to contribute in a number of scientific fields including biogeography, medicinal chemistry, forensics, transcriptomics, cancer biology and even linguistics, in addition to systematic biology -for which it was originally erupted by Willi Hennig. In this invited editorial contributed to the Journal of Phylogenetics and Evolutionary Biology a big picture of this ever evolving field is expounded. Application of phylogenetic inference in biosystematics, phylogeography, phylogenetic selection of target taxa in medicinal chemistry, cancer phylogenetics, and linguistic phylogeny are reviewed with a personal perspective summarizing contribution to this interdisciplinary field from my group. Parametric methods such as Maximum Likelihood and Bayesian Inference have dramatically improved for last one decade, yet empirical solutions to some of the most fundamental issues, including homoplasy and lineage sorting, remains to be materialized.
