Home / Greens / Filamentous / Branched / Bulbochaete
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Name derivation:
Classification:
Bulbochaete C.Agardh 1817: xxxix, 71; 110 of 155 species descriptions are currently accepted taxonomically (Guiry and Guiry 2014). Order: Oedogoniales; Family: Oedogoniaceae
Morphology:
Often epiphytic and attached to other vegetation, uniseriate filaments, unilaterally branched, green algae. Vegetative cells have one nucleus with many vacuoles and large reticulate parietal chloroplast containing one to many pyrenoids. There are three morphologies for vegetative filaments: basal holdfast cells, cylindrical intercalary cells, small terminal “hair” cells.
Similar genera:
Commercial value:
Bulbochaete has been, along with several other species of cyanobacteria and chlorophyceae, genetically modified to produce more carbon for carbon based products of interest. Ethanol or linolool are two products which can be produced with these genetically modified cyanobacteria. Modifying the gene that controls the MEP pathway as well as increasing photosynthesis is a way to extract carbon from these species (Zhou & Gibbons, 2012).
Cells devoid of plastids:
Bulbochaete is a unique algal genus where only few species have specialized cells that are devoid of plastids. These cells are not involved in reproduction. The study suggests that the plastid containing organisms have a phagocytosis stage during which they can engulf bacterial cells. This suggest how photosynthetic eukaryotes evolved (Maruyama & Kim, 2013).
Habitat:
Bulbochaete occurs in a wide variety of freshwater habitats; only a few species are known from brackish waters. Normally epiphytic and attached to aquatic vegetation by basal holdfast cell; occasionally free-floating. Most frequently encountered in small bodies of shallow, standing water such as ponds, small lakes, and ditches. Cosmopolitan with greatest abundance of species in temperate and subtropical regions (Guiry and Guiry 2014). Bulbochaete was reported from Lake Syczynskie in Poland (Tarkowska-Kukuryk, 2013).
Citing Phycokey:
Baker, A.L. et al. . Phycokey -- an image based key to Algae (PS Protista), Cyanobacteria, and other aquatic objects. University of New Hampshire Center for Freshwater Biology. http://cfb.unh.edu/phycokey/phycokey.htm
References:
Agardh, C.A. 1817. Synopsis algarum Scandinaviae, adjecta dispositione universali algarum. pp. [i]-xl, [1]-135. Lundae [Lund]: Ex officina Berlingiana. Guiry, M.D. and G.M. Guiry 2014. AlgaeBase. World-wide electronic publication, National University of Ireland, Galway. http://www.algaebase.org; searched on 19 December 2012. Maruyama, S. and K. Eunsoo. 2013. A Modern Descendant of Early Green Algal Phagotrophs. Current Biology. V23;12. 1081-1084. Tarkowska-Kukuryk, M.. 2013. Periphytic Algae as Food Source for Grazing Chironomids in a Shallow Phytoplankton-Dominated Lake. Limnologica- Ecology and Management of Inland Waters. V43;4. 254-264. Zhou, R. and W. Gibbons 2012. Genetically Engineered Cyanobacteria. US 20120276637 A1.