AEROSAKKONEMA, A NEWLY REPORTED GENUS OF WATER BLOOM FORMING CYANOBACTERIA IN THE POYANG LAKE OF CHINA

During a recent field survey of the water bloom forming cyanobacteria in the Poyang Lake, we collected a type of gas-vacuolated filamentous cyanobacterial. Six strains of this species were isolated and purified after the culture in the lab. The 16S rRNA gene sequence of this species showed a high similarity (98%) with those of two strains from the Nam Ngum Reservoir of Lao People's Democratic Republic. This result, together with their morphological characteristics, suggested that these six strains were different from other Oscilatorialean cyanobacteria. Therefore this species was identified as Aerosakkonema funiforme that belonged to Aerosakkonema (Nanda Watanabe 2012). Aerosakkonema is a new record of cyanobacteria genus in China.