Home

Desmosiphon

Generic name: DESMOSIPHON Borzi, 1907. Atti Congr. Nat. Ital. Milano 1906: 372.
Synonyms:
Diagnosis:
Type species:Desmosiphon maculans Borzi 1907
Descriptions:
Komárek (1992): Thallous; thallus joined to the substrate, crusty, more or less of circular outline, forming circular dark reddish-black spots, which later sometimes confluent by their margins. Basal part is composed from the "chroococcoid" mass of densely agglomerated cells enveloped by their own mucilaginous, sometimes lamellated sheaths, occasionally arranged in pseudofilamentous rows, and from erected filaments repeatedly pseudodichotomously and laterally branched; branching types: V and T. Erected trichomes are uniserial, rarely two-serial. Basal cells more or less spherical or polygonal-rounded, cells in trichomes barriliform, shorter or (at the ends), longer than wide. Sheaths thin, but distinct, colourless or (when old) yellow or yellow-brown. Heterocytes and akinetes missing.
Genotype differences, molecular
data:
Reproduction strategies, life
cycles, cell division:
Komárek (1992):Cells divide irregularly in three or more planes in basal parts, and usually crosswise in erected trichomes, with numerous lateral divisions. Reproduction by planocytes, which separate from terminal parts of trichomes and liberate from sheaths, and by free clusters of several cells enveloped by mucilaginous envelopes.
Ultrastructure:
Taxonomic position, higher hierarchy:
Cyanophyceae, Stigonematales, Capsosiraceae
Notes to taxonomy, misinterpretations:Monotypic genus, but sometimes joined with the genus Nematoplaca.
Ecology, ecophysiology, ecological
significance:
Komárek (1992):The type species grows on submersed freshwater substrates. It was described from Italy (Sicily - wet and submersed rocks with streaming water) and later was found epilithic and epiphytic in littoral of lakes in Sweden. Ecological differences and both distant localities make genotype identity of both these populations uncertain.
Physiology and biochemistry:
Distribution, endemism, problematic citations:
Reference strain:
Infrageneric scheme, species concept:
List of species:
Desmosiphon maculans Borzi 1907
Keys:
List of stains:
Drawings:
Komárek 1992
Application technology:
Literature:

  2.1 taxonomy: Geitler 1932, Geitler 1942, Bourrelly 1970, Komárek 1992
  2.2 cytomorphology:
  2.3 16S rRNA sequencing:
  2.4 biology and life cycles:
  2.5 ecology: