Summary
Trichodesmium thiebautii was collected, as floating bundles composed of uniseriate filaments aligned in parallel, from the Kuroshio waters off Shikoku Island, Japan. The ultrastructure of this alga had basically the same general features as the related speciesT. erythraeum first described byvan Baalen andBrown (1969). InT. thiebautii long electron dense fibers and concentrically lamellated bodies were observed which were either not reported previously, or did not occur inT. erythraeum. The peripheral wall layers were generally typical ofOscillatoria-type blue-green algae, but with a distinctive finely striated outer layer. Thylakoids per cell volume were very sparse compared to most other blue-green algae. Phycobilisomes, apparently hemidiscoidal in shape, typically occurred on the stromal side of the thylakoid surface. Large gas vesicle areas occupied the main volume of the cell, including cells which seemed to be actively growing. The gas vesicle areas were distributed throughout the cell, not only in the cell periphery as inT. erythraeum. Considerable complexity was suggested by the apparent cell compartmentation, particularly because the gas vesicle areas were delimited by one to several thylakoids. Only rarely were the gas vesicle areas traversed by thylakoids. Electron dense fibers (ca. 25 nm diameter) were always observed between the gas vesicles and were usually oriented parallel with them, but they were not rigid appearing as were the gas vesicles. The gas vesicles had a smaller diameter (ca. 45 nm) than most blue-greens. Concentrically lamellated bodies (ca. 1.0 μm diameter) were observed in cells of some of the bundles. Each concentric layer was ca. 1.3 nm wide. These concentrically lamellated bodies may be characteristic of older cells. Cylindrical bodies were considerably smaller (ca. 120 nm diameter) and less complex than those reported forT. erythraeum.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Bryceson, I., Fay, P., 1981: Nitrogen fixation inOscillatoria (Trichodesmium) erythraea in relation to bundle formation and trichome differentiation. Mar. Biol.61, 159–166.
Carpenter, E. J., MacCarthy, J. J., 1975: Nitrogen fixation and uptake of combined nitrogenous nutrients byOscillatoria (Trichodesmium) thiebautii in the western Sargasso Sea. Limnol. Oceanogr.20, 389–401.
—,Price, C. C., 1976: MarineOscillatoria (Trichodesmium): explanation for aerobic nitrogen fixation without heterocysts. Science191, 1278–1280.
—,Walsby, A. E., 1979: Gas vacuole collapse in marineOscillatoria (Trichodesmium) thiebautii (Cyanophyta) and the effect on nitrogenase activity and photosynthesis. J. Phycol.15, 221–223.
Drews, G., 1973: Fine structure and chemical composition of the cell envelopes. In: The Biology of the Blue-green Algae. (Carr, N. G., Whitton, B. A., eds.), pp. 99–117. Oxford: Blackwell Scientific Publications.
Fliesser, S. B., Jensen, T. F., 1982: Observations on the fine structure of isolates of the blue-green bacteriaCalothrix, Fremyella, Gloeotrichia. Cytobios.33, 203–222.
Fujita, Y., Shimura, S., 1974: Phycoerythrin of the marine bluegreen algaTrichodesmium thiebautii. Plant Cell Physiol.15, 939–942.
Gantt, E., 1980: Structure and function of phycobilisomes: light harvesting pigment complexes in red and blue-green algae. Int. Rev. Cytol.66, 45–80.
Giesy, R. M., 1964: A light and electron microscopic study of interlamellar polyglycoside bodies inOscillatoria chalybia. Amer. J. Bot.51, 388–396.
Goering, J. J., Dugdale, R. C., Menzel, D. W., 1966: Estimates ofin situ rates of nitrogen uptake byTrichodesmium in the tropical Atlantic Ocean. Limnol. Oceanogr.11, 614–620.
Nagasawa, S.,Marumo, R., 1967: Taxonomy and distribution ofTrichodesmium (Cyanophyceae) in the Kuroshio water. Information Bull. Planktol. Japan. Commemoration number of Dr. Y.Matsue, pp. 139–143.
Ohki, K., Fujita, Y., 1982: Laboratory culture of the pelagic bluegreen algaTrichodesmium thiebautii: conditions for unialgal culture. Marine Ecol.7, 185–190.
Saino, T., Hattori, A., 1978: Diel variation in nitrogen fixation by a marine blue-green alga,Trichodesmium thiebautii. Deep Sea Res.25, 1259–1263.
— —, 1980: Nitrogen fixation byTrichodesmium and its significance in nitrogen cycling in the Kuroshio area and adjacent waters. The Kuroshio5, 697–709.
Taylor, B. F., Lee, C. C., Bunt, J. S., 1973: Nitrogen-fixation associated with the marine blue-green alga,Trichodesmium, as measured by the acetylene-reduction technique. Arch. Mikrobiol.88, 205–212.
Van Baalen, C., Brown, Jr., R. M., 1969: The ultrastructure of the marine blue-green alga,Trichodesmium erythraeum, with special reference to the cell wall, gas vacuoles, and cylindrical bodies. Arch. Mikrobiol.69, 79–91.
Walsby, A. E., 1978a: The gas vesicles of aquatic prokaryotes. In: Relations between Structure and Function in the Prokaryotic Cell. Symp. Society for General Microbiology28, 327–358. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
—, 1978b: The properties and buoyancy-providing role of gas vacuoles inTrichodesmium Ehrenberg. Br. phycol. J.13, 103–116.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Gantt, E., Ohki, K. & Fujita, Y. Trichodesmium thiebautii; structure of a nitrogen-fixing marine blue-green alga (Cyanophyta). Protoplasma 119, 188–196 (1984). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01288873
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01288873