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Synechocystis

Generic name: SYNECHOCYSTIS Sauvageau, 1892. Bull. Soc. Bot. Fr. 39: 115.
Synonyms:
Diagnosis:

Etymology:
Geitler(1942): Der Name leitet sich [from Greek] von "zusammenhängen" und "Blase, im Sinn von
kugeliger Zelle" ab. Er ist, wie Sauvageau selbst betont, unzutreffend, da die Zellen typischerweise nicht zusammenhängen, wurde aber gewählt, um die Ähnlichkeit mit Synechococcus hervorzuheben.  

Type species: Synechocystis aquatilis Sauvageau 1892.
Descriptions:
Komárek & Anagnostidis (1998): Cells solitary, spherical, after division hemispherical and for a short time two together, never forming colonies, without mucilage or (mainly) with narrow, fine, colourless and usually diffluent and indistinct mucilaginous envelopes. Cells spherical or widely oval. In several strains the cell walls contain a special «S-layer» with characteristical hexagonal (p6) substructure (Šmarda et al. 1979; Vaara 1982; etc.) (fig. 154). The stability, function and taxonomic significance of this layer is not yet clear. Different but stable pigment ratios in related species (and populations) have been found (Kováčik in litt.).
Komárek (1992): Unicellular; cells live solitary or agglomerated, but without common mucilage, spherical or slightly widely oval before division, sometimes enveloped by own thin, fine, colourless, diffluent mucilaginous envelope (staining !), with homogeneous content or with several prominent granules, sometimes with visible chromatoplasma, pale blue-green, olive-green, bright- green or pinkish.
Geitler(1942): Zellen kugelig, einzeln, nur nach der Teilung zu zweien und dann ungefähr halbkugelig,ohne sichtbare Gallerthülle oder bei den großzelligen Arten mit dünner Hülle.
Geitler (1932): Zellen kugelig, einzeln, nur nach der Teilung zu zweien beisammen, ohne sichtbare Gallerthülle (atypisch: S. crassa).
Genotype differences, molecular data:
Reproduction strategies, life cycles, cell division:
Komárek & Anagnostidis (1998): Cell division by binary fission (mainly by pinching) into two morphologically equal, hemispherical daughter cells, which reach the original globular shape before next division; cells always divide in two perpendicular planes in successive generations. If the mucilaginous envelopes are formed around cells, they split together with dividing cells.
Komárek (1992): Cell division (pinching) always in two perpendicular planes in successive generations (recognizable only on solid substrates); daughter cells separate soon after division and grow into the oriminal size and shape before next binary fission. Reproduction by solitary cells.
Ultrastructure:
Taxonomic position, higher hierarchy: Cyanophyceae,
Chroococcales, Merismopediaceae, Merismopedioideae
Notes to taxonomy, misinterpretations:
Ecology, ecophysiology, ecological significance:
Komárek (1992): Several species are planktic in fresh water reservoirs or in salinic or sea waters, other grow in metaphyton of pools, of thermal and mineral springs, of salinic (brackish) swamps or in moors. The "Marine cluster of Synechocystis", defined by Waterbury (1989), belongs evidently to this genus. The "Aphanocapsa" species found within hollow hairs of polar bears in zoos (comp. Lewin 1979) is evidently also a Synechocystis species.
Physiology and biochemistry:
Distribution, endemism, problematic citations:
Reference strain:
Infrageneric scheme, species concept:
List of species:
Synechocystis aquatilis Sauvageau 1892
Synechocystis bourrellyi Komárek 1976
Synechocystis buzasii Palik 1948
Synechocystis consotia Norris 1967
Synechocystis crassa Woronichin 1929
Synechocystic diplococca (Pringsheim) Bourrelly 1970
Synechocystis endobiotica (Elenkin et Hollerbach) Elenkin et Hollerbach in Elenkin 1938
Synechocystis endophytica (G.M. Smith) Joosten 2006
Synechocystis fuscopigmentosa Kováčik 1988
Synechocystis limnetica Popovskaya 1968
Synechocystis major (Geitler) Komárek et Anagnostidis 1995
Synechocystis minima Woronichin 1927
Synechosystis miniscula Woronichin 1926
Synechocystis parvula Perfiliev 1923
Synechocystis pevalekii Ercegović 1925
Synechocystis planctonica Proškina-Lavrenko 1951
Synechocystis primigenia Gardner 1927
Synechocystis sallensis Skuja 1929
Synechocystis salina Wislouch 1924
Synechocystis septentrionalis Skuja 1956
Synechocystis skujae Joosten 2006
Synechocystis thermalis Copeland 1936
Synechocystis trididemni Lafargue et Duclaux 1979

Unclear taxa:
Aphanocapsa montana Cramer sensu Lewin et Robison 1979
Synechocystis spirogyrae Skvorcov 1946
Synechocystis willei Gardner 1927

Keys:
List of stains:
Drawings:
Komárek 1992
Application technology:
Literature:

  2.1 taxonomy: Geitler 1960, Anagnostidis 1961, Starmach 1966, Padmaja 1972, Komárek 1973, Komárek 1976, Šmarda et al. 1979, Vaara 1982, Kováčik 1983, Komárek & Anagnostidis 1986, Kováčik 1988, Hernandez-Mariné et al. 1990, Komárek 1992, Komárek & Anagnostidis 1998
  2.2 cytomorphology:
  2.3 16S rRNA sequencing:
  2.4 biology and life cycles:
  2.5 ecology: