Chloropicophyceae is a class of green algae in the division Chlorophyta that, along with Picocystophyceae, coincides with the traditional "prasinophyte clade VII".[1]
Members of this class are coccoid green cells, with a diameter of 1.5–4 µm, found in marine waters, with one nucleus, one mitochondrion, and one chloroplast surrounded by two membranes, containing starch grain; their single chloroplast has chlorophylls a and b; they lack pyrenoid and flagella; and they have a layered cell wall. Their sexual reproduction is unknown.[1]
In total, this class contains eight newly described species, belonging to two genera. The taxonomy goes as follows[1] :
In the 2017 article where the new class is described, it is shown as the sister clade of the class Picocystophyceae. The internal relationships are shown in the tree below, which is a simplified version of the phylogenetic tree elaborated in the research:[1]
Chlorokybus atmophyticus (outgroup)
clade VII Picocystophyceae ChloropicophyceaeChloroparvula pacifica
Chloroparvula japonica
Chloropicon maureeniae
Chloropicon mariensis
Chloropicon laureae
Chloropicon primus
Chloropicon sieburthii
Chloropicon roscoffensis
This article incorporates "Chloropicophyceae, a new class of picophytoplanktonic prasinophytes" text from this source, which is by Adriana Lopes dos Santos, Thibaut Pollina, Priscilla Gourvil, Erwan Corre, Dominique Marie, José Luis Garrido, Francisco Rodríguez, Mary-Hélène Noël, Daniel Vaulot and Wenche Eikrem available under the CC BY 4.0 license.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Chloropicophyceae. Wikispecies has information related to Chloropicophyceae. Chloropicophyceae is a class of green algae in the division Chlorophyta that, along with Picocystophyceae, coincides with the traditional "prasinophyte clade VII".
