Bacteria
Dr. samina Tanwir
CYANOBACTERIA (CHLOROXYBACTERIA)
BLUE GREEN ALGAE OR BLUE GREEN BACTERIA
Cyanobacteria: distribution and numbers
Include ca. 200 genera and 2000 species
All kinds of environments i.e. “ubiquitous”,
mostly aquatic (rarely at pH< 4-5),
terrestrial on rocks and soils,
deserts, polar regions, other extreme habitats as thermal
pools ( 70 °C),hypersaline waters etc.
•In symbioses, 8 % of lichens with cyanobacteria
as fycobiont
•In blooms (vannblomst) = mass occurrence with
surface scum and often toxin producing species
Why treat cyanobacteria
together with the algae?
1. Oxygenic photosynthesis and
pigments (chlorophyll a) as in algae
and plants
light
CO2 +2H2O chlorophyll a (CH2O) + O2 +H2O
All other photosynthetic bacteria (e.g. green sulfurbacteria)
have bacterial chlorophyll and anoxic photosynthesis
light
CO2 +2H2S (CH2O) + 2S + H2O
Bacterial chlorophyll
Why treat cyanobacteria
together with the algae?
2. Cyanobacteria (blue greens) occur with
algae in similar habitats, mainly aquatic
environments.
Similar ecological function (as primary
producers). Together with the algae they
stand for ca. 40 % of global primary
production
Why treat cyanobacteria
together with the algae?
3. Algal (and plant) chloroplasts originated from primary
endosymbiosis between heterotrophic eukaryote and a free
living cyanobacterium
nucleus
Cyanobacterium taken up chloroplast
by phagotrophic eukaryote
and eventually transformed
into a chloroplast
cyanobacterium
Cyanobacteria: evolutionary history
Oldest photosynthetic organisms, oldest fossil
records ca. 3500 million years
Dominant form of life on Earth 1500 - 600 million
years before present (BP) (e.g stromatolites)
Photosynthesis resulted in a gradual increase of O2
in the atmosphere
Primary endosymbiosis lead to algal chloroplasts
ca. 1600 million years ago
Cyanobacteria: general characteristics
As all Prokaryotes absence of organelles:
- Nucleus
- Chloroplasts
- Mitochondria
- Golgi bodies (dictyosomes)
- Endoplasmatic reticulum (ER)
Cyanobacteria: general characteristics
Pigments:
chlorophyll a
(three genera with chlorophyll a + b) phycoerythrin
phycocyanin
phycobilins
allophycocyanin
carotenoids
A variety, some are
specific, others as in
algae and plants
scytonemin - extra cellular, UV-shielding pigment
Cyanobacteria: general characteristics
Storage products:
- Cyanophycean-starch (-1,4 glucan)
- Cyanophycin-grains: N-reserve, a
co-polymer of two amino acids
(asparagine and arginine)
- Volutin grains - polyphosphate granules
- Lipids
Cyanobacteria: general characteristics
Ultra structure:
Thylakoids with phycobilisomes
Cyanobacteria: systematic characters
Morphology
Unicellular
as colonies single cells
free living
attached
(Order Chroococcales) (cells polar)
Cyanobacteria: systematic characters
Morphology
Multicellular (filamentous)
uniseriate trichome
multiseriate trichome
Cyanobacteria: systematic characters
False branching
Cyanobacteria: systematic characters
True branching
only in some representatives of the
order Stigonematales
Cyanobacteria: systematic characters
Vegetative reproduction:
by binary division and fragmentation
Chroococcus Merismopedia
Cyanobacteria: systematic characters
Vegetative reproduction:
by hormogonia, only in some
filamentous forms hormogonium
Oscillatoria
“separation discs”
(necridia)
Lyngbya
Cyanobacteria: systematic characters
Vegetative reproduction:
Akinetes: resting cells with thick cell walls
and enriched with storage products
Anabaena
Akinetes may survive for years in darkness and under dry conditions
Cyanobacteria: systematic characters
Asexual reproduction:
Formation of spores, only in some
unicellular forms
exospores
endospores
(= baeocytes)
Dermocarpa Chamaesiphon
Cyanobacteria: systematic characters
Sexual reproduction by gametes:
completely absent
Viral transduction may happen
Cyanobacteria: systematic characters
Heterocytes (heterocysts) are cells with nitrogen
fixation as a special function.Heterocytes only present
in some filamentous forms (Nostocales,
Stigonematales), though N-fixation may occur also in
some non- heterocysteous forms
N2 NH4+
nitrogenase
intercalary heterocyst akinete
terminal heterocyst
Cyanobacterial nitrogen fixation of great ecological and
commercial importance
Rice agriculture:
Azolla-Anabaena system 120-310 kg N per hectar per year. Free-living cyanobacteria e.g.
Tolypella or Anabaena ca 40 kg
See: Vaishampayan et al. (2001) Cyanobacterial Biofertilizers in Rice Agriculture - Bot.Rev. 67 (4): 453-516
Trichodesmium erythraeum - in tropical marine plankton,
Oscillatoria-like trichoms as free floating bundles. May fix up to
30 mg nitrogen m-2 day-1
Nodularia spumigena -
Baltic Sea- Kattegat
Microcystis aeruginosa
Toxin producing
cyanobacterium in
eutrophic fresh waters.
Toxin (microcystin) a
cyclic polypeptide that
cause liver damage
(hepatotoxin).
Other species produce alkaloids that are neurotoxins (anatoxin), Anabaena
and others
Skin irritants (e.g. Lyngbya majuscula)
Other secondary metabolites may cause smell and odors to drinking water
(geosmin)
