Summary
Pigment analyses can be employed to study distribution, abundance and composition of natural phytoplankton populations using a chemotaxonomic approach. Cultured haptophytes have played a relevant role in advances in this analytical field and many pigments described in the literature were first detected in members of this algal group. The present chapter provides an historical overview of pigment detection in the Haptophyta and contains new data on their distribution in cultured coccolithophores (some of which not previously cultured), analysed in the context of the EC funded CODENET project. This comparative HPLC study was conducted with the largest (73 monoclonal strains) and most diverse (36 species representing ten families and four orders, including six holococcolithophores) hapto-phyte sample set ever subjected to a comparative study. The observed extraordinary diversity in the pigment composition (based on ten carotenoids, five polar- and three non-polar chlorophyll types) appeared closely related to current taxonomy and published phylogeny. Chi a and the accessory pigments MgDVP, Chl c 2, Ddx, Dtx and β, β-carotene comprised the common haptophyte pigment load. Based on ecological preferences, all species synthesised either Chl c 1 (littoral, benthic or brackish waters) or HFx (open-ocean and non-littoral coastal environments). HFx thus recovered its previously questioned status as a straightforward marker for haptophyte distribution in offshore habitats. Haploid and diploid life-cycle stages (analysed separately for the first time in both Coccolithus and Emilianid) yielded identical pigment compositions. This provided further evidence for an evolutionary origin of pigment content, rather than short-term temporal adaptations to environmental conditions.
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Lenning, K.V., Probert, I., Latasa, M., Estrada, M., Young, J.R. (2004). Pigment diversity of coccolithophores in relation to taxonomy, phylogeny and ecological preferences. In: Thierstein, H.R., Young, J.R. (eds) Coccolithophores. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-06278-4_3
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