Four obligately photoautotrophic blue-green algae were shown to assimilate acetate. This reaction was light dependent and was greatly decreased in the absence of carbon dioxide. Acetate was incorporated mainly into the ethanol extractable (lipid) fraction of the organisms and into the protein fraction. Only four amino acids (glutamate, proline, arginine, leucine) were significantly radioactive ...

Functional classification and composition of phytoplankton of Liman Lake were studied between January 2002 and December 2003. A total of 109 taxa belonging to Bacillariophyta, Chlorophyta, Cyanophyta, Dinophyta, Xantophyta, Chrysophyta and Cryptophyta were identified. The succession during 2002 began with R-Strategists (with a high surface to volume ratio, including blue-green algae with filame...

Spherical bodies resembling coccidian oocysts and measuring 8.0 to 9.0 microns in diameter were seen in the stools of eight persons with explosive, watery diarrhea. Seven had recently traveled to tropical countries, mostly in the Caribbean, and four had acquired immunodeficiency syndrome. The structures were easily discernible in wet mounts by light microscopy and contained variable numbers of ...

Genetically engineered (GE) microalgae are nearing commercial release for biofuels production without sufficient public information or ecological studies to investigate their possible risks. Blue-green algae (cyanobacteria) and eukaryotic green algae are likely to disperse widely from open ponds and, on a smaller scale with lower probability, from enclosed photobioreactors. With powerful molecu...

Benthic algae in the littoral region of Lake Tanganyika serve as chemical modulators transforming inorganic chemicals into organic forms, represent habitats for other organisms, provide food for snails and cichlid fish and are important in stabilizing the substrata of community existence. These algae represent an evolutionary diverse group of photoautotrophic organisms that contain chlorophyll ...

A microplate technique was developed to determine the conditions under which pure cultures of algae removed heavy metals from aqueous solutions. Variables investigated included algal species and strain, culture age (11 and 44 days), metal (mercury, lead, cadmium, and zinc), pH, effects of different buffer solutions, and time of exposure. Plastic, U-bottomed microtiter plates were used in conjun...

The bloom dynamics of two planktonic, nitrogen-fixing species of blue-green algae Aphanizomenon flos-aquae (L.) Ralfs and Nodularia spumigenaMertens in the Gulf of Gdańsk were studied. The Gulf of Gdańsk is a shallow part of the Baltic Sea where the water has a mean salinity of ca 8 PSU. Increased riverine nutrient input and/or changes in the N:P ratio are indicated as factors causing blue-gree...

Glucose 6-phosphate dehydrogenase (EC 1.1.1.49) has been partially purified from Anacystis nidulans and Anabaena flos-aquae by means of ammonium sulfate fractionation and exclusion gel chromatography and the kinetic properties determined.Glucose 6-phosphate dehydrogenase from these blue-green algae exhibits Michaelis-Menten kinetics at pH 6.7. At this pH, Km values of 0.37 mm for glucose 6-phos...

Filter-feeding fishes have been examined as biological controls of phytoplankton populations. Although increased phytoplankton biomass resulted in approximately 50% of studies and no effect in 25% (Smith 1988), changes in species composition and dominance have been noted. For example, blue tilapia Oreochromis aureus reduce or eliminated blue-green (Cyanobacteria) and green (Chlorophyta) net phy...

Rates of grazing on phytoplankton by macrozooplankton (cladocerans and copepods > 220 μm in length) and microzooplankton (animals < 220 μm, mostly rotifers and nauplii) were determined for Lake Champlain on three occasions using a modified version of the Lehman-Sandgren method. Gradients in grazer density were created in fertilized cubitainers incubated in situ, and clearance rates on specific ...