Nodularia

Nodularia
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Bacteria
Phylum: Cyanobacteria
Class: see
Order: Nostocales
Family: Nostocaceae
Genus: Nodularia
Mertens 1822
Species

Nodularia armorica
Nodularia harveyana
Nodularia sphaerocarpa
Nodularia spumigena

Nodularia is a genus of filamentous nitrogen-fixing cyanobacteria, or blue-green algae.[1] They occur mainly in brackish or salinic waters, such as the hypersaline Makgadikgadi Pans,[2] the Peel-Harvey Estuary in Western Australia or the Baltic Sea. Nodularia cells occasionally form heavy algal blooms. Some strains produce a cyanotoxin called nodularin R, which is harmful to humans.

The type species for the genus is Nodularia spumigena Mertens ex Bornet & Flahault, 1886.

Morphology

Nodularia is forms solitary filaments or groups of filaments. They reproduce by the formation of hormogonia, filament breakage, and by akinetes .[3]

See also

Kruger, T., Oelmuller, R., and Luckas, B. (2009) Comparative PCR analysis of toxic Nodularia spumigena and non-toxic Nodularia harveyana (Nostocales, Cyanobacteria) with respect to the nodularia synthetase gene cluster. Eur. J. Phycol. 44 (3): 291 - 295.

References

Line notes

  1. Jiří Komárek and Tomáš Hauer
  2. C. Michael Hogan, 2008
  3. Martin Dworkin and Stanley Falkow, 2006