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Single heterocysts develop about every 9-15 cells, producing a one-dimensional pattern along the filament. The interval between heterocysts remains approximately constant even though the cells in the filament are dividing. The bacterial filament can be seen as a multicellular organism with two distinct yet interdependent cell types.
To multiply, they form two new cells when they divide by binary fission. Along the trichomes, larger specialist nitrogen-fixing cells called heterocysts occur between the ordinary cells. When wet, Nostoc commune is bluish-green, olive green or brown but in dry conditions it becomes an inconspicuous, crisp brownish mat.
Their cell size varies from less than 1 μm in diameter (picocyanobacteria) up to 100 μm (some tropical forms in the genus Oscillatoria) [39] [40] [41] Filamentous forms exhibit functional cell differentiation such as heterocysts (for nitrogen fixation), akinetes (resting stage cells), and hormogonia (reproductive, motile filaments). These ...
Nostoc, also known as star jelly, troll's butter, spit of moon, fallen star, witch's butter (not to be confused with the fungi commonly known as witches' butter), and witch's jelly, is the most common genus of cyanobacteria found in a variety of both aquatic and terrestrial environments that may form colonies composed of filaments of moniliform cells in a gelatinous sheath of polysaccharides. [1]
The rest of the sections include filamentous species. In Oscillatoriales, the cells are uniseriately arranged and do not form specialized cells (akinetes and heterocysts). [240] In Nostocales and Stigonematales, the cells have the ability to develop heterocysts in certain conditions.
Akinetes usually develop in strings with each cell differentiating after another and this occurs next to heterocysts if they are present. [1] Development usually occurs during stationary phase and is triggered by unfavorable conditions such as insufficient light or nutrients, temperature, and saline levels in the environment.
Nitrogenase, sequestered within these cells, transforms dinitrogen into ammonia at the expense of ATP and reductant—both generated by carbohydrate metabolism, a process supplemented, in the light, by the activity of PS I. Carbohydrate, probably in the form of glucose, is synthesized in vegetative cells and moves into heterocysts.
Aphanizomenon are a special type of cyanobacteria called heterocysts, which are capable of producing biologically useful nitrogen by the process of nitrogen fixation from atmospheric nitrogen. A large proportion (between 35 and 50%) of fixed nitrogen may be released into the surrounding water, providing an important source of biologically ...