Algae. 1993; 8(2): 91-97.

Discovery, Early History and Phylogeny of Prochloron

Ralph A. Lewin, Lanna Cheng

Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California

Prochloron is a unicellular symbiotic alga asslociated with colonial ascidians on many warm tropical sea coasts. Originally regarded as a zoochlorella, it was first named as a cyanophyte, but later assigned to a new order, the Prochlorales. Most molecular biological data now indicate that its affinities lie in the eubacterial assemblage, somewhat closer to cyanophytes than to chloroplasts.

Keywords : Prochloron, prochlorophytes, chloroplasts, plastids, algae, ascidians, didemnids, symbiogenesis, phylogeny