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Microchaete

Generic name: MICROCHAETE Thuret ex Bornet et Flahault 1887, nom. cons. Ann. Sci. Nat. Bot., ser. 7, 5: 83.[ MICROCHAETE Thuret, Essai de classification des Nostochinees, p.7, 1875 ( Ann. des sc. nat., 6e serie, Bot., I, p. 378).
Synonyms: COLEOSPERMUM Kirchner in Cohn, 1878. Kryptogamenfl. Schlesiens 2: 239., FREMYELLA De Toni, 1936. Noter. nom. alg., p. 9.
Diagnosis:
Bornet et Flahault(1888): Fila simplicia, basi affixa, erecta. Trichomata in vagina solitaria. Heterocystae basilares
et intercalares. Sporae (ubi cognitae) e cellulis inferioribus formatae. Plantae minutae, marinae vel aquae dulcis, in caespitibus stellatis vel tomentosis aggregatae.
Type species: Microchaete grisea Thuret ex Bornet et Flahault 1887. 
Descriptions:
Komárek (1992): Filaments solitary or in small groups, attached to or creeping on the substrate, heteropolar, with basal heterocytes and free apical ends,more or less cylindrical along the whole length. Sheaths distinct, firm, thin or thick, sometimes slightly lamellated, usually colourless, open at the apex. Whole trichomes cylindrical or slightly attenuated towards the ends (different subgenera ?), constricted or not constricted at the cross-walls, in the apical part sometimes with meristematic zones (shorter cells and deeper constrictions). Cells isodiametric, shorter or longer than wide, cylindrical or rarely barrel-shaped; apical cells always rounded. Heterocytes basal, hemispherical, spherical or slightly elongated and rounded; not frequently also intercalar, cylindrical; rarely false branching at heterocytes. Facultatively develop
akinetes, solitary or in rows, near the basis.
Genotype differences, molecular data:
Reproduction strategies, life cycles, cell division:
Komárek (1992): Reproduction by hormogonia, which separate from trichomes in apical parts. Hormogonia develop heteropolar or firstly isopolar with two central heterocytes, which shift later into the basal position.
Ultrastructure:
Taxonomic position, higher hierarchy: Cyanophyceae,
Nostocales, Microchaetaceae, Microchaetoideae
Notes to taxonomy, misinterpretations:
Ecology, ecophysiology, ecological significance:
Komárek (1992):Majority of species grow epiphytic on algae and submerse plants in moors, swamps and ponds, few species are epilithic in streaming water or in littoral of lakes. Few species are known from algae in marine littoral, several taxa occur only in geographically limited areas (tropical regions). One strain used as an important experimental model organismus under the name "Fremyella diplosiphon"(probably able to chromatic adaptation).
Physiology and biochemistry:
Distribution, endemism, problematic citations:
Reference strain:
Infrageneric scheme, species concept:

List of species:
Microchaete aequalis (Frémy) Desikachary 1959
Microchaete brunescens Komárek 1956
Microchaete bulbosa Copeland 1936
Microchaete calothrichoides Hansgirg 1905
Microchaete capensis Hodgetts 1926
Microchaete changsusanensis An 1990. Bull. Acad. Sci. of DPR of Korea 1: 53
Microchaete crassa G.S. West 1914
Microchaete catenata Lemmermann 1907
Microchaete cladophorae Jao 1948
Microchaete diplosiphon Gomont ex Bornet et Flahault 1887. Ann. Sci. Nat. Bot., ser. 7, 5: 84 [ syn: Fremyella diplosiphon (Gomont) De Toni 1936]
Microchaete elongata (Frémy) Desikachary 1959
Microchaete epiphytica Starmach 1983
Microchaete goeppertiana Kirchner 1900
Microchaete grisea Thuret ex Bornet et Flahault 1887. Ann. Sci. Nat. Bot., ser. 7, 5: 85
Microchaete investiens Frémy 1930
Microchaete loktakensis Brühl et Biswas 1926
Microchaete purpurea Johnson-Schmidt 1899
Microchaete robinsonii Komárek 1994. Canadian Journal of Botany 72: 597
Microchaete robusta Setchell et Gardner 1903
Microchaete schweickerdtii Cholnoky 1952
Microchaete spiralis Ackley 1929
Microchaete sphagnicola Starmach 1983
Microchaete tapahiesis Setchell 1926
Microchaete tenera Thuret ex Bornet et Flahault 1887. Ann. Sci. Nat. Bot., ser. 7, 5: 84
Microchaete terrestre Johansen et Flechtner in Flechtner, Johansen et Belnap 2008. Western North American Naturalist 68: 417
Microchaete thermalis Emoto et Yoneda 1940
Microchaete transvaalensis Cholnoky 1954
Microchaete tropica Woodhead et Tweed 1959
Microchaete uberrima N. Carter 1924
Microchaete violacea Frémy 1930
Microchaete vitiensis Askenasy ex Bornet et Flahault 1887. Ann. Sci. Nat. Bot., ser. 7, 5: 85

Unclear taxa:
Microchaete aequalis sensu Bharati et Bongale 1975
Microchaete cf. aequalis sensu M. Watanabe et Komárek 1994
Microchaete aeruginosa Batters 1892
Microchaete striata (Voronichin) Elenkin 1938
Microchaete sp.? sensu Reisigl 1964

Keys:
List of stains:
Drawings:
Komárek 1992
Application technology:
Literature:
  2.1 taxonomy: Bornet & Flahault 1886, Geitler 1932, Geitler 1942, Komárek 1956, Komárek 1992, Kondrateva 1968
  2.2 cytomorphology:
  2.3 16S rRNA sequencing:
  2.4 biology and life cycles:
  2.5 ecology: