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Cyanobacterial cell division and cell growth mutant phenotypes in Synechocystis, Synechococcus, and Anabaena.Stars indicate gene essentiality in the respective organism. While one gene can be essential in one cyanobacterial organism/morphotype, it does not necessarily mean it is essential in all other cyanobacteria.
Cyanobacteria are variable in morphology, ranging from unicellular and filamentous to colonial forms. Filamentous forms exhibit functional cell differentiation such as heterocysts (for nitrogen fixation), akinetes (resting stage cells), and hormogonia (reproductive, motile filaments).
Cyanophages are viruses that infect cyanobacteria, also known as Cyanophyta or blue-green algae. Cyanobacteria are a phylum of bacteria that obtain their energy through the process of photosynthesis. [1] [2] Although cyanobacteria metabolize photoautotrophically like eukaryotic plants, they have prokaryotic cell structure.
Nostoc, also known as star jelly, troll's butter, spit of moon, fallen star, witch's butter (not to be confused with the fungi commonly known as witches' butter), and witch's jelly, is the most common genus of cyanobacteria found in a variety of both aquatic and terrestrial environments that may form colonies composed of filaments of moniliform cells in a gelatinous sheath of polysaccharides. [1]
Gloeotrichia is a large (~2 mm) colonial genus of Cyanobacteria, belonging to the order Nostocales. [2] The name Gloeotrichia is derived from the appearance of the filamentous body with prominent mucilage matrix. Found in lakes across the globe, gloeotrichia are notable for the important roles that they play in the nitrogen and phosphorus cycles.
Synechococcus is one of the most important components of the prokaryotic autotrophic picoplankton in the temperate to tropical oceans. The genus was first described in 1979, [5] [6] and was originally defined to include "small unicellular cyanobacteria with ovoid to cylindrical cells that reproduce by binary traverse fission in a single plane and lack sheaths". [7]
The cyanobacterial photobionts of some cyanolichen species show very limited ability to grow independently, displaying slow growth rates and an inability to produce motile hormogonia (reproductive filaments). This suggests that through evolution, some symbiotic cyanobacteria have largely lost capabilities needed for free-living existence.
Marine cyanobacteria are to date the smallest known photosynthetic organisms; Prochlorococcus is the smallest at just 0.5 to 0.7 micrometres in diameter. [11] [2] The coccoid shaped cells are non-motile and free-living. Their small size and large surface-area-to-volume ratio, gives them an advantage in nutrient-poor water.