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Name derivation:

From the Greek pleura=pleuron –rib, side, and kapsa, a box, or capsule.

Classification:

Pleurocapsa  Thuret in Hauck  1885;  27 of 39 species descriptioins are currently accepted taxonomically (Guiry and Guiry 2013).

Order Chroococcales;  Family Hydrococcaceae

Morphology:

Irregular colonies of cells arranged in rows that form pseudo-filaments within sheaths. Differentiated cells called endospores or baeocytes are produced my multiple binary divisions (Pinevich et al. 2008).

Similar genera:

None known, however Bergey's Manual of Determinative Bacteriology (1994) considers Pleurocapsa to be a "super-genus" likely to be divided into several other genera.

Endosymbiotic bacteria

A small proportion (5%) of a population of Pleurocapsa from a stream near the University of Montana Biological Station, Flat Head Lake MT USA contained up to six endobiotic bacteria.  Their effect on the host cyanobacterium is unclear (Wujek 1979).

Circadian rhythm genes:

Genes highly similar to kaiABC complex associated with circadian rhythm in Synechoccus PCC 7942 are found in Pleurococcus and as many as 40 diverse strains of cyanobacteria, so a ‘clock’ may be common to all cyanobacteria (Lorne et al. 2000).

Habitat:

Attached to stones, mostly limestone. Occurs in both freshwater and the marine intertidal zone.  Reported from cold mountain streams in Europe (Tyrol) and USA (Montana).

 

References:

Guiry, M.D. and G.M. Guiry  2013.  AlgaeBase.  World-wide electronic publication, National University of Ireland, Galway. http://www.algaebase.org; searched on 04 September 2013.

Hauck, F.  1885.  Die Meeresalgen Deutschlands und Österreichs. In: Kryptogamen-Flora von Deutschland, Österreich und der Schweiz. Zweite Auflage. (Rabenhorst, L. Eds) Vol. 2, pp. 513-575, [i]-xxiii [xxiv]. Leipzig: Eduard Kummer.

Holt, J. G.  1994.  Bergey's Manual of Determinative Bacteriology. 9th. ed. Lippincott Williams and Wilkins publishers.

Lorne, J., J. Scheffer, A. Lee, M. Painter and V.P.W. Miao  2000.  Genes controlling circadian rhythm are widely distributed in cyanobacteria.  FEMSD Microbiology Letters 189:129-133.

Pinevich, A.V., S.G. Averina, OlV. Gavrilova, and A.V. Migunova  2008. Baeocytes in the Cyanobacterium Pleurocapsa sp.:  characgerization of the differentiated cells produced by multiple fission.  Microbiology 77(1):62-68.  [Original Russian text was published in Mikrobiologiya 77(1):71-78 (2008).

Wujek, D.E.  1979.  Intracellular bacteria in the blue-green alga Pleurocapsa minor.  Transactionf of the American Microscopical Society 98(1):143-145.

 

 

 

 

 

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