Lab #2 -- Cyanobacteria Flashcards
Cell Covering
plasmalemma
The complex structure of peptidoglycan
Mucilaginous structure made of mucopolysaccharides
Flagella
There are no flagella
Pigments
No chloroplasts – thylakoids in the cytoplasm
Mainly chlorophyll a
Phycobilins
Food Storage
Cyanophycean starch in polyglycan granules
Similar to animal glycan
Levels of Organisation
From single cells, loose aggregations, colonies and filaments
Reproduction
No sexual reproduction
cell division, colony fragments, akinetes
Habitat
Freshwater, marine, moist terrestrial, or in host
Gloeocapsa
Aggregations of related cells in a common sheath
No akinetes or heterocysts
Merismopedia
Colony arranged into a single flat sheet
No akinetes or heterocytes
Oscillatoria
Filamentous colony is unbranched
No akinetes or heterocytes
Slow oscillating movement
Certain cells die, become separation discs
Filament breaks here, hormogonia freed and slide away
Gloeotrichia
Filaments more organized, beginning with heterocyte
Large rectangular akinetes formed in cells next to heterocyte
Mucilaginous sheath protects trichome
Anabaena
Filaments of small bead-like cells
Round to barrel shaped
Produce both heterocytes and akinetes
Tolypothrix
Capable of both heterocytes and akinetes
Form false branches – break in trichome next to heterocyte
Stigonema
True branching, the highest level of organization in cyanobacteria
