Cutleria Greville, 1830

Holotype species: Cutleria multifida (Turner) Greville

Original publication and holotype designation: Greville, R.K. (1830). Algae britannicae, or descriptions of the marine and other inarticulated plants of the British islands, belonging to the order Algae; with plates illustrative of the genera. pp. [i]-lxxxviii, [1]-218, pl. 1-19. Edinburgh & London: McLachlan & Stewart; Baldwin & Cradock.

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Description: Gametophytic thalli mostly epilithic, solitary or caespitose, attached with small discoid holdfast, dichotomously or laterally branched, compressed or fan-shaped, solid, yellowish to dark brown in color, up to 40 cm in length, terminated with dissected apices fringed with tufts of monosiphonous, pigmented filaments which later coalesce each other to form parenchymatous thalli. Erect thalli composed of medullary layer consisting of several large, colorless cells and cortical layer consisting of 1-2 small pigmented cells. Each cell contains many disc-shaped chloroplasts without pyrenoids. Phaeophycean hairs present, usually grouped. Anisogamous, plurilocular male and female gametangia formed on separate or on the same thalli according to the species, scattered on entire thalli except for basal part, in groups, pedicellate on uniseriate fertile filaments. Female gametes typically flagellated containing several chloroplasts with a stigma on one of them. Male gametes normally flagellated, containing a chloroplast with stigma, pale in color. Sporophytic thalli (= Aglaozonia stage), loosely attached on substratum by uniseriate rhizoidal filaments descending from the lower surface, flattened and prostrate, flabellate or irregularly shaped, lobed with marginal meristematic cells, parenchymatous composed of large inner cells and small pigmented cells, forming sessile, cylindrical unilocular sporangia on the surface. C. multifida has sexual heteromorphic life history alternating between erect gametophytic thalli and prostrate sporophytic thalli. Female gametes more than twice as large as male gametes in length and width and attracts male gametes by the secretion of sexual pheromone multifidene after settlement, sometimes even before settlement (Müller 1981). Zygotes germinated into discoid sporophytic thalli (= Aglaozonia stage) forming unilocular sporangia. Unispores develop into small disc from which erect thalli issue. Unfused female gametes reproduced female gametophytes or directly developed into sporophyte. Formation of neutral plurilocular sporangia on sporophytic thalli recently reported in Japanese C. cylindrica. Dominance of female gametophytes in the field populations has been repeatedly reported (Thuret 1850, Church 1898, Fletcher 1987, Womersley 1987). This phenomena was partly explained by the frequent occurrence of parthenogenetic female gametophytes. Erect thalli mostly epilithic in intertidal zone, annual. Prostrate thalli epilithic and perennial.

Information contributed by: H. Kawai. The most recent alteration to this page was made on 2014-06-21 by M.D. Guiry.

Taxonomic status: This name is of an entity that is currently accepted taxonomically.

Gender: This genus name is currently treated as feminine.

Most recent taxonomic treatment adopted: Silberfeld, T., Rousseau, F. & Reviers, B. de (2014). An updated classification of brown algae (Ochrophyta, Phaeophyceae). Cryptogamie Algologie 35(2): 117-156, 1 fig., 1 table.

Comments: Distributed widely in temperate area of Pacific and Atlantic Ocean.

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Contributors
Some of the descriptions included in AlgaeBase were originally from the unpublished Encyclopedia of Algal Genera, organised in the 1990s by Dr Bruce Parker on behalf of the Phycological Society of America (PSA) and intended to be published in CD format. These AlgaeBase descriptions are now being continually updated, and each current contributor is identified above. The PSA and AlgaeBase warmly acknowledge the generosity of all past and present contributors and particularly the work of Dr Parker.

Descriptions of chrysophyte genera were subsequently published in J. Kristiansen & H.R. Preisig (eds.). 2001. Encyclopedia of Chrysophyte Genera. Bibliotheca Phycologica 110: 1-260.

Linking to this page: https://www.algaebase.org/search/genus/detail/?genus_id=47

Citing AlgaeBase
Cite this record as:
M.D. Guiry in Guiry, M.D. & Guiry, G.M. 21 June 2014. AlgaeBase. World-wide electronic publication, National University of Ireland, Galway. https://www.algaebase.org; searched on 24 November 2024