Image: Morphological variation within cyanobacterial genera

Description: Natural morphological variation within cyanobacterial genera. Unicellular strains: (a) Synechocystis sp. PCC6803 and (b) Synechococcus elongatus PCC4972. Non-heterocytous strains: (c) Arthrospira maxima, (d) Trichodesmium sp. and (e) Phormidium sp. CCM-UFV034. False branching or non-branching heterocytous strains: (f) Nostoc sp. CCM-UFV028 and (g) Brasilonema octagenarum CCM-UFVE1. True-branching heterocytous strain: (h) Stigonema sp. CCM-UFV036. Synechocystis sp. (a) and Arthrospira maxima (c) are unable to perform N2 fixation, whereas the strains shown in b and e present a temporal separation of metabolism: photosynthetic CO2 fixation is performed in the light while N2 fixation occurs during darkness. Trichodesmium sp. (d) is the unique non-heterocytous cyanobacterium that shown N2 fixation under light conditions. Conversely, in other strains (f, g, and h), there is a spatial separation of metabolism, with N2 fixation occurring in heterocytes (ht). Abbreviations: (ak) akinetes; (fb) false branching; (tb) true branching.
Title: Morphological variation within cyanobacterial genera
Credit: [1] doi:10.1590/1678-4685-GMB-2016-0050
Author: Alberto A. Esteves-Ferreira, João Henrique Frota Cavalcanti, Marcelo Gomes Marçal Vieira Vaz, Luna V. Alvarenga, Adriano Nunes-Nesi and Wagner L. Araújo. Credits: The picture of Arthrospira maxima (c) was kindly provided by the Culture Collection of Autotrophic Organisms (CCALA), http://ccala.butbn.cas.cz and the picture of Trichodesmium sp. (d) by Prof. Ondøej Práil, Institute of Microbiology, Czech Academy of Sciences, Czech Republic. The other pictures are from strains kept at Collection of Cyanobacteria and Microalgae from Universidade Federal de Viçosa (CCM-UFV).
Usage Terms: Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0
License: CC BY-SA 4.0
License Link: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
Attribution Required?: Yes