| Cross Index | Spirulina |
| SuperSet | Prokaryote, Eubacteria Oxygenic Phototrophic Bacteria |
| Compare | Cyanobacteria
Prochlorales Procloron didemni, Prochlorothrix hollandica |
| Contrast | Anoxygenic
Phototrophic Bacteria Archaea |
| Subset |
| Morphology | Spirulina |
| CELLULAR |
| Staining | |
| Morphology | |
| Motility | healthy" trichomes are in constant motion. Gliding motility consists of a "turning of the screw", thus with great transverse movement and little forward motion. The trichome does not truly rotate but moves along the outer surface of the helix. Free ends not in contact with substrate may oscillate wildly as the coil turns. |
| Specialized structures | Filamentous organisms that divide exclusively by binary fission and in one plane but that grow in the form of a tight to nearly tight coiled right- or left-handed helix. The cross-walls are thin and are invisible or nearly so with light microscopy (Holmgren et al. 1979) Originally characterized as being a long unicellular thread. No sheath is visible under light microscopy, and " The terminus of the trichome is either blunt or pointed. In different species the width of the trichome may be from < 1 um to about 5 um. In the latter case, the width of the tight helix may be as great as 12 um. Colour is variable, blue-green to red; some marine strains are extremely red, containing phycoerythrin as the major light-harvesting pigment. Variations in the tightness of the trichome helix occur in both Spirulina in culture collections (Jeeji-Bai 1985). In four strains, Guglielmi and Cohen-Bazire (1982b) found patches of pores at cross-walls on only the inner concave surfaces of the helix (Fig. 19.57). This feature may become a good diagnostic feature of a natural taxonomic unit. In addition, Guglielmi and Cohen-Bazire (1982a) found distinctive periodic tufts of fimbriae extending out from the walls of the one Spirulina strain examined |
| Division |
| COLONIAL |
| Solid surface | The best isolation procedures involve self-isolation by gliding motility, but because of poor forward progress on agar, isolation on glass or plastic surfaces in liquid medium is often more successful (see Castenholz 1981). |
| Liquid |
| Growth Parameters | Spirulina |
| PHYSIOLOGICAL |
| Tropism | photoautotroph A thermophilic strain (S. labrinthiformis) is capable of sulfide-dependent anoxygenic photosynthesis (Castenholz 1977). |
| Oxygen | |
| pH | |
| Temperature | |
| Requirements | Some red (shade-adapted) marine strains require "oligotrophic" medium and grow very slowly (R.W. Castenholz,unpublished |
| Products | |
| Enzymes | and is able to synthesize nitrogenase anaerobically |
| Unique features |
| ENVIRONMENTAL |
| Habitat | worldwide distribution in freshwater, marine, brackish and hyper saline envirnmentswaters. Species are also seen in inland saline lakes and in some hot springs at temperatures as high as 50`C (Castenholz 1977, 1978). They are commonly tolerant of free sulfide in many habitats. They are aquatic and uncommon in terrestrial habitats subjected to periodic drying. Spirulina has been part of human diet in africa where id is grown on marginal land using saline wate unsuitable for conventional agriculture |
| Lifestyle | They are also unknown as intimate endosymbionts or exosymbionts forms thick mats |
| Pathogenicity | used as food source |
| Distribution |
| Genome | Spirulina |
| G+C Mol % | The mol% G + C of the DNA of the reference strain (PCC 6313) is 54, |
| the genome size is 1.53 x 109 daltons (Herdman et al. 1979a,b). |
| Reference | Spirulina |
| First citation | Turpin 1829 (cited by Castenholz) not able to find |
| The Prokaryotes | p 2073 2097,2081, 538 |
| Bergey's Systematatic | p1773 R.W. Castenholz |
| Bergey's Determinative | p 398 |
| References |