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The oldest undisputed evidence of cyanobacteria is dated to be 2.1 Ga ago, but there is some evidence for them as far back as 2.7 Ga ago. [31] Cyanobacteria might have also emerged 3.5 Ga ago. [177] Oxygen concentrations in the atmosphere remained around or below 0.001% of today's level until 2.4 Ga ago (the Great Oxygenation Event). [178]
Cyanobionts play a variety of roles in their symbiotic relationships with the host organism. [2] [4] [5] They function primarily as nitrogen- and carbon-fixers.However, they can also be involved in metabolite exchange, as well as in provision of UV protection to their symbiotic partners, since some can produce nitrogen-containing compounds with sunscreen-like properties, such as scytonemin and ...
Marine cyanobacteria are to date the smallest known photosynthetic organisms; Prochlorococcus is the smallest at just 0.5 to 0.7 micrometres in diameter. [11] [2] The coccoid shaped cells are non-motile and free-living.
Cyanophages are viruses that infect cyanobacteria, also known as Cyanophyta or blue-green algae. Cyanobacteria are a phylum of bacteria that obtain their energy through the process of photosynthesis. [1] [2] Although cyanobacteria metabolize photoautotrophically like eukaryotic plants, they have prokaryotic cell structure.
Lake Erie in October 2011, during an intense cyanobacteria bloom [1] [2] Microcystins—or cyanoginosins—are a class of toxins produced by certain cyanobacteria, commonly known as blue-green algae. [3] Over 250 [4] different microcystins have been discovered so far, of which microcystin-LR is the most common.
These organisms perform photosynthesis through organelles called chloroplasts and are believed to have originated about 2 billion years ago. [1] Comparing the genes of chloroplast and cyanobacteria strongly suggests that chloroplasts evolved as a result of endosymbiosis with cyanobacteria that gradually lost the genes required to be free-living.
Phycoerythrin (PE) is a red protein-pigment complex from the light-harvesting phycobiliprotein family, present in cyanobacteria, [1] red algae [2] and cryptophytes, [3] accessory to the main chlorophyll pigments responsible for photosynthesis.The red pigment is due to the prosthetic group, phycoerythrobilin, which gives phycoerythrin its red color.
The cyano in the term cyanobacteria refers to its colour, not to its relation to cyanides, though cyanobacteria can catabolize hydrogen cyanide during nitrogen fixation. [ 1 ] Exposure to cyanobacteria can result in gastro-intestinal and hayfever symptoms or pruritic skin rashes. [ 2 ]