Hydrurus foetidus is a cold-water golden alga (Chrysophyceae) found in fast-flowing rivers mainly during time of snowmelt. It has primarily been studied by scientists located near alpine or northern locations, but there are also observations both in south and north America, Russia, Japan, in the Hope Bay area (Antarctica) and Himalaya. If and where environmental conditions are appropriate, Hydrurus may be distributed "worldwide." More information is wanted from areas where its presence may be expected.

The genus Heterocapsa is one of the major dinoflagellate groups, with some of its species having worldwide distributions. However, prior to the present study, the phototrophic species Heterocapsa minima has been reported only from the northeast Atlantic Ocean. Recently, H. minima was found in the Korean waters, and a clonal culture was established. This culture was used to examine the morphology of the Korean strain H. minima HMMJ1604 through light and scanning electron microscopy, as well as for its genetic characterization. Furthermore, to determine the nationwide distribution of H. minima in Korea, its abundance was quantified in the waters of 28 stations in all four seasons in 2016-2018 using the quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction method. The overall morphology of H. minima HMMJ1604 was very similar to that of the Irish strain H. minima JK2. However, the Korean strain had five pores around the pore plate, whereas the Irish strain had six pores. When properly aligned, the sequences of the large subunit and internal transcribed spacer regions of the ribosomal DNA of the Korean strain were identical to those of the Irish strain. This species was detected in the waters of 26 out of 28 stations, but its abundance was greater than $1.0cells\;mL^{-1}$ at 8 stations. The highest abundance of H. minima was $44.4cells\;mL^{-1}$. Although this species was found in all seasons, its abundance was greater than $1.0cells\;mL^{-1}$ when the water temperature and salinity were $10.9-25.0^{\circ}C$ and 17.5-34.1, respectively. To the best knowledge, the present study reported for the first time that H. minima lives in the Pacific Ocean and is widely distributed in the Korean waters.

Freshwater red algal diversity and the relationship with water conditions in 22 stream segments in the area around Khao Luang National Park, Nakhon Si Thammarat province, southern Thailand, were studied during a period of twelve months (May 2014 to April 2015). Sixteen species of freshwater red algae, belonging to eight genera (Audouinella, Balliopsis, Batrachospermum, Caloglossa, Compsopogon, Kumanoa, Sirodotia, and Thorea) were identified, which were all reported earlier for the country. Thorea clavata (Thoreaceae) was the most common species occurring in eight stream segments. Caloglossa beccarii sensu lato (Delesseriaceae) and Sirodotia huillensis Skuja (Batrachospermaceae) had the highest percent cover with up to 40% and 20% per stream segment, respectively. The water quality showed most sites to be unpolluted or ultra-oligotrophic to oligotrophic. Canonical Correspondence Analysis revealed some trends in occurrence of individual species with stream environmental variables: Batrachospermum sp.with strong current velocity; Kumanoa hirosei with high turbidity, total dissolved solid and alkalinity; Caloglossa beccarii with high conductivity; Kumanoa tabagatenensis with high ammonia-nitrogen and Thorea siamensis with high calcium and magnesium. In view of the scarce studies on the stream ecology of freshwater red algae in Philippines and neighbouring countries, it is expected that the data presented here would be helpful in more critical further studies in south-east Asia in general.

Genetic study of haploid organisms offers the advantage that mutant phenotypes are directly displayed, but has the disadvantage that strains carrying lethal mutations are not readily maintained. We describe an approach for generating and performing genetic analysis of diploid strains of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, which is normally haploid. First protocol utilizes self-mating diploid strains that will facilitate the genetic analysis of recessive lethal mutations by offering a convenient way to produce homozygous diploids in a single mating. Second protocol is designed to reduce the chance of contamination and the accumulation of spontaneous mutations for long-term storage of mutant strains. Third protocol for inducing the meiotic program is also included to produce haploid mutant strains following tetraploid genetic analysis. We discuss implication of self-fertile strains for the future of Chlamydomonas research.

Ecklonia cava (EC) has been widely utilized as an ingredient in commercial products such as functional foods and cosmeceuticals. Recently it has been found that Sargassum horneri (SH) has been invading on Jeju Island coast area by its huge blooming. Moreover, both seaweeds are considering as important ingredients in traditional medicine specifically in East-Asian countries (China, Japan, and Korea). In the present study, we attempted to compare anti-inflammatory properties of 70% ethanolic extracts of EC (ECE), SH (SHE), and their different combinations on lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-activated RAW 264.7 cells. Results indicated that 8 : 2 combinations of ECE : SHE significantly inhibited LPS-activated inflammatory responses (cytokines, protein, and gene expression) in RAW 264.7 macrophage cells compared to the respective extracts and other combinations. The synergistic effect of ECE and SHE was found to be prominent than the effects of ECE or SHE alone. These observations provide useful information for the industrial formulation of functional materials (functional foods and cosmeceuticals) using these two particular seaweeds in Jeju Island of South Korea.

DNA metabarcoding is currently used for large-scale taxonomic identification to understand the community composition in various marine ecosystems. However, before being widely used in this emerging field, this experimental and analytic approach still has several technical challenges to overcome, such as polymerase chain reaction (PCR) bias, and lack of well-established metabarcoding markers, a task which is difficult but not impossible to achieve. In this study, we present an adapted PCR-free small-organelles enriched metagenomics (SoEM) method for marine biodiversity assessment. To avoid PCR bias and random artefacts, we extracted target DNA sequences without PCR amplification from marine environmental samples enriched with small organelles including mitochondria and plastids because their genome sequences provide a valuable source of molecular markers for phylogenetic analysis. To experimentally enrich small organelles, we performed subcellular fractionation using modified differential centrifugation for marine environmental DNA samples. To validate our SoEM method, two marine environmental samples from the coastal waters were tested the taxonomic capturing capacity against that of traditional DNA metabarcoding method. Results showed that, regardless of taxonomic levels, at least 3-fold greater numbers of taxa were identified in our SoEM method, compared to those identified by the conventional multi-locus DNA metabarcoding method. The SoEM method is thus effective and accurate for identifying taxonomic diversity and presents a useful alternative approach for evaluating biodiversity in the marine environment.