Dr. Guy Yehuda and Prof. Ofer Ovadia, Ben Gurion University
Exploring species abundance, richness and distribution of Charophytes in Israel

Chara
Charophytes are considered the closest living relatives to land plants. They include living
plants of the family Charopyceae and several extinct lineages (i.e., families) with partial
traces in the fossil record. The Charopyceae family includes six genera (Chara, Nitella,
Lamprothamnium, Tolypella, Lychnothamnus, and Nitellopsis). A previous study by
Romanov and Barinova (2012) has surveyed the historical and modern data of
Charophytes in Israel. In this study, 23 locations of Charophytes were reported from
Northern to southern Negev of Israel. Seven species and one variety of Charophytes were
found out of 15 species and four genera according the published data. In order to increase
our knowledge about species richness and distribution of Charophytes in Israel, we
propose to use a continuous detection methodology; that is, to frequently sample
Charophytes in their native habitats in Israel. This approach will allow us to study
Charophytes’ dynamics better than sampling many habitats but rarely. Using a molecular
toll, as AFLP markers, we will be able to distinguish between different varieties, species
and orders. In addition, the genetic polymorphism in the community can be identified
with AFLP and used to estimate the genetic distance among species. This data may be also related to habitat characteristics.