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Central University Researchers Discover A New Species of Seaweed

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Researchers from Centre for Biosciences, Central University of Punjab, have discovered a new bloom-forming species of a large endemic green seaweed off the West Coast of India. New species was named as Ulva paschima Bast , specific epithet in Sanskrit means “West”-indicating unique pattern in its distribution. Article, authored by Dr. Felix Bast, an Assistant Professor at Centre for Biosciences and two M.Phil. students working with him, Mr. Aijaz Ahmad John and Mr. Satej Bhushan, have been published in October 2014 issue of PLoS ONE , a major international journal. Researchers collected tubular Ulva species from various locations in West Coast from Goa, Karnataka and Kerala over a stretch of 600 km, and used morphometry and DNA sequence data to compare evolutionary legacy of this seaweed with other seaweeds in the world, and concluded that this is a new species. Bloom-forming algae like this newly discovered species are hot candidates for “Carbon Capture and Sequestration”, as it c