Biofilms dominated by pennate diatoms are important in fields as diverse as ship biofouling and marine littoral sediment stabilization. The architecture of a biofilm depends on the fact that much of its mass consists of extracellular polymers. Although most illuminated biofilms in nature are dominated by phototrophs, they also contain heterotrophic bacteria. Given the close spatial association ...

 The study investigated the stomach content of Sillago sihama in Hormuzgan Province waters located in the northern Persian Gulf from October 2009 to March 2010. The stomach analysis was carried out using frequency of occurrence and numeric methods. Diatoms, blue- green algae and dinoflagellates constituted main food of plant origin. Diatoms were found to be the most preferable food of...

Diatoms samples in Zayandeh Rood Dam Lake were taken in four stations from surface, 0.5 and 3 m depths of water in three replicate by Nansen sampler. Additional samples were taken from the surface with plankton net. Diatoms samples fixed with 4% formaldehyde and were concentrated and identified using microscope at 400 x. Salinity, NO3, PO4 and SO4 were measured using standard methods (APHA). In...

Next-generation sequencing (NGS) technologies have enabled us to determine phytoplankton community compositions at high resolution. However, few studies have adopted this approach to assess the responses of natural phytoplankton communities to environmental change. Here, we report the impact of different CO2 levels on spring diatoms in the Oyashio region of the western North Pacific as estimate...

Diatoms are very efficient in their use of available nutrients. Changes in nutrient availability influence the metabolism and the composition of the cell constituents. Since diatoms are valuable candidates to search for oil producing algae, measurements of diatom-produced compounds can be very useful for biotechnology. In order to explore the diversity of lipophilic compounds produced by diatom...

Every surface that is immersed in seawater becomes rapidly covered with an unavoidable biofi lm. Such biofi lm formation, also known as fouling, is a complex multistage process and not yet thoroughly investigated. In this study, the succession of diatoms and bacteria was investigated during a one month exposure on an artifi cial substrate of plexiglass (polymer of methyl methacrylate) mounted a...

Isoprenoid biosynthesis in the widespread diatomaceous algae, Rhizosolenia setigera (Brightwell) and Haslea ostrearia (Simonsen), results not only in the production of diterpenoids, triterpenoids, and sterols but, unusually for diatoms, also in the production of sesterterpenoids. By using 13C and 2H isotopic labeling techniques followed by NMR and mass spectrometry, specific inhibition of meval...

A few diatom species produce toxins that affect human and animal health. Among these, members of the Pseudo-nitzschia genus were the first diatoms unambiguously identified as producer of domoic acid, a neurotoxin affecting molluscan shell-fish, birds, marine mammals, and humans. Evidence exists indicating the involvement of another diatom genus, Amphora, as a potential producer of domoic acid. ...

Diatoms are a major phytoplankton group that play important roles in maintaining oxygen levels in the atmosphere and sustaining the primary nutritional production of the aquatic environment. Among diatoms, the genus Chaetoceros is one of the most abundant and widespread. Temperature, climate, salinity, nutrients, and predators were regarded as important factors controlling the abundance and pop...

Diatoms are abundant and important biological components of the marine environment that biosynthesize diverse natural products. These microalgae are rich in various lipids, carotenoids, sterols and isoprenoids, some of them containing toxins and other metabolites. Several groups of diatom natural products have attracted great interest due to their potential practical application as energy sourc...