Ulva is recognized as a cosmopolitan genus in the order Ulvales of Chlorophyta. Here, we describe a new species of free-living uniseriate Ulva from the eastern coast of the Indian subcontinent. Distinguishing morphological characteristics include unbranched compressed filamentous thalli, tufts of thallus attached via rhizoids, quadrilateral to elongated cells with round apices, and parietal chloroplasts with multiple pyrenoids per cell. Phylogenetic reconstruction using nrDNA ITS1 locus revealed a distinct monophyletic clade encompassing all of our uniseriate accessions, thus corroborating the new species proposition under the framework of phylogenetic species concept. The closest BLASTn hit was found to be Ulva prolifera, but our isolates had synapomorphic trait of compressed uniseriate thalli which is absent in Ulva prolifera or any of the previously described species of Ulva to date. Based on morphological and molecular synapomorphy, a new free-living uniseriate species Ulva uniseriata sp. nov. is formally proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
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