Everything about Glaucophyte totally explained
The
glaucophytes, also known as
glaucocystophytes or
glaucocystids, are a small group of freshwater microscopic
algae. Together with the
red algae and
Viridiplantae (green algae and land plants) they form the
Archaeplastida. However, the relationships between the red algae, green algae and glaucophytes are unclear, in large part due to limited study of the glaucophytes.
There are only 13 species of glaucophytes known, none of which are particularly common in nature.
The
chloroplasts of glaucophytes are known as
cyanelles. Unlike other eukaryotic plastids they've a
peptidoglycan layer which is believed to be a relic of the
endosymbiotic origin of plastids from
cyanobacteria.
Glaucophytes contain the photosynthetic pigment
chlorophyll a.
Along with red algae
and cyanobacteria they harvest light via
phycobilisomes, structures consisting largely of
phycobiliproteins. The green algae and land plants have lost that pigment.
The glaucophytes are of obvious interest to biologists studying the development of chloroplasts: if the hypothesis that primary chloroplasts had a single origin is correct, glaucophytes are closely related to both green plants and red algae, and may be similar to the original alga type from which all of these developed.
Glaucophytes have
mitochondria with flat cristae, and undergo open
mitosis without
centrioles. Motile forms have two unequal
flagella, which may have fine hairs and are anchored by a multilayered system of
microtubules, both of which are similar to forms found in some green algae.
The three main
genera included are:
Glaucocystis is non-motile, though it retains very short vestigial flagella, and has a cellulose wall.
Cyanophora is motile and lacks a cell wall.
Gloeochaete has both motile and non-motile stages, and has a cell wall that doesn't appear to be composed of cellulose.Further Information
Get more info on 'Glaucophyte'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://glaucophyte.totallyexplained.com">Glaucophyte Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
