Myriotrichia

Myriotrichia
The gametophyte of M. clavaeformis. Click image for explanation of labelling.
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Chromalveolata
Division: Heterokontophyta
Class: Phaeophyceae
Order: Ectocarpales
Family: Chordariaceae
Genus: Myriotrichia
Species
M. adriatica
M. canariensis
M. clavaeformis (formerly M. repens)
M. densa
M. filiformis
M. harveyana
M. occidentalis
M. protasperococcus
M. scutata
M. subcorymbosa

[1]

Myriotrichia is a genus of brown alga.[2]

It forms small, soft, olive-brown tufts on the surface of other plants. Filaments rarely exceed centimetres in length.[3]:105

It may grow by intercalary growth.[3]:105 Its sporangia may contain one or many cavities, and emerge directly from the surface cells; they may form a ring around the main nema.[3]:105 Dedicated photosynthetic machinery may be entirely absent.[3]:107

Its life history consists of alternation of phases; it has isogamous gametes, and dioecious gametophytes.[4]

At warm temperatures 18 °C (64 °F), the alga reproduces sexually, forming single chambered "meiosporangia". At cooler temperatures, asexual reproduction took place in multi-chambered "mitosporangia".[4]

The gametophyte phase only produces gametes when day length is long; with shorter days these too reproduce asexually.[4] This is probably because the plants upon which they are epiphytic only grow in the spring.[5] The gametophyte is filamentous – while the sporophyte bears parenchyma, even though it only reaches around 4 cm (2 in) in length.[4]

The alga has a small genome with approximately 12 chromosomes.[4]

References

  1. ↑ Myriotrichia - Nomen.at - animals and plants
  2. ↑ Oltmanns, Freidrich (1904). "Morphologie und biologie der Algen" (in German) 1.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 F. E. Fritsch (1945). "The Structure and Reproduction of the Algae." II. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 Peters, Akira F.; Marie, Dominique; Scornet, Delphine; Kloareg, Bernard; Mark Cock, J. (2004). "Proposal Of Ectocarpus Siliculosus (Ectocarpales, Phaeophyceae) As A Model Organism For Brown Algal Genetics And Genomics1,2". Journal of Phycology 40 (6): 1079. doi:10.1111/j.1529-8817.2004.04058.x.
  5. ↑ Peters, Akira (1992). "Culture studies on the life history of Dictyosiphon hirsutus (Dictyosiphonales, Phaeophyceae) from South America". European Journal of Phycology 27 (2): 177. doi:10.1080/00071619200650181.