Abstract
A cyanobacterial strain isolated from the Svalbard archipelago was studied using morphological, ecological, and molecular approaches. The morphology of natural populations fit well the description of the Leptolyngbya s.l. however, in culture, they formed specific nodules that prevented affiliation to this genus. Further phylogenetic analyses including the 16S rRNA gene and 16S-23S ITS region revealed that the strain corresponds to the genus Nodosilinea. Based on this total evidence approach, we provide here a description of the new taxon Nodosilinea svalbardensis sp. nov.