Algae-inhabiting marine fungi represent a taxonomically and ecologically interesting group of microorganisms still largely neglected, especially in temperate regions. The aim of this study was to isolate and to identify the culturable mycobiota associated with Flabellia petiolata, a green alga frequently retrieved in the Mediterranean basin. Twenty algal thalli were collected from two different...

In the red alga Porphyra perforata, the level of chlorophyll fluorescence in the presence of 3-(3,4-dichlorophenyl)-1,1-dimethylurea (DCMU) decreased during illumination of the thallus. The results showed that: (a) this decay was related to the photooxidative activity of photosystem I; (b) Q, the primary electron acceptor of photosystem II, became oxidized during the decay of the fluorescence; ...

Bioactive polymers mainly polysaccharides such as cellulose, chitin, amylose and beta-glucan are well discovered from various sources in nature. Amongst chitin, as the second most abundant polysaccharides after cellulose, is known as a highly insoluble polysaccharide consisting of β-4-linked N-acetyl-D-glucosamine, which has been identified as a structural component of crustaceans, crabs, shrim...

The concentrations of heavy metals (Cd, Cu, Ni, Pb, Zn and Mn) and macroelements (K, Na, Ca and Mg) were determined in green alga Enteromorpha sp. from the coastal zone of the southern Baltic including Gulf of Gdańsk and Vistula Lagoon in 2000-2003. In order to estimate the degree of accumulation of each element by the green alga, concentration and discrimination factors (CFs) with respect to s...

A single Brachionus rotifer can consume thousands of algae cells per hour causing an algae pond to crash within days of infection. Thus, there is a great need to reduce rotifers in order for algal biofuel production to become reality. Copper can selectively inhibit rotifers in algae ponds, thereby protecting the algae crop. Differential toxicity tests were conducted to compare the copper sensit...

In the early 1980s, a biologist at the tropical aquarium in Stuttgart, Germany, noticed that the beautiful green alga Caulerpa taxifolia (Fig. 1) would make an ideal aquarium decoration. It does not wither, it is fast growing and it withstands cool temperatures. In the following years, many aquariums acquired Caulerpa plants from Stuttgart, among them the Oceanographic Museum of Monaco, from wh...

The sarcinoid alga PY02 is a newly isolated soil alga native to western Thailand. In this study PY02 is described, the carotenoid profile of the green and red forms of the algal cells are compared, and the effect of nitrogen reduction and media volume on ketocarotenoid production are reported. Partial sequences of the genes from elongation factor Tu (tufA) and 18S rRNA reveal that the alga is f...

The dissipation of energy as heat is essential for photosynthetic organisms to protect themselves against excess light. We compared Photosystem II florescence changes (non-photochemical quenching, NPQ) in the brown alga Macrocystis pyrifera with that of Ficus sp., a higher plant to examine if the mechanism of heat dissipation (energy-dependent quenching, qE) differs between these evolutionary d...

Marine macroalgae are subjected to large numbers of bacteria in their environment. These bacteria have the potential to affect the health and ecology of algae in a variety of ways and can be both beneficial and harmful to the algae. Therefore, algae have likely evolved mechanisms to differentially regulate the growth of bacterial species. In this study, we examined the effects of the green alga...

Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) has undergone radical changes during the evolution of green plants, yet little is known about the dynamics of mtDNA evolution in this phylum. Land plant mtDNAs differ from the few green algal mtDNAs that have been analyzed to date by their expanded size, long spacers, and diversity of introns. We have determined the mtDNA sequence of Chara vulgaris (Charophyceae), a gr...