Nodularia

Nodularia is a genus of filamentous nitrogen-fixing cyanobacteria, or blue-green algae.[1] They occur mainly in brackish or salinic waters, such as the hypersaline Makgadikgadi Pans,[2] the Peel-Harvey Estuary in Western Australia or the Baltic Sea. Nodularia cells occasionally form heavy algal blooms. Some strains produce a cyanotoxin called nodularin R, which is harmful to humans.

Nodularia
Satellite image of a large bloom of Nodularia swirling in the Baltic Sea
Scientific classification
Domain: Bacteria
Phylum: Cyanobacteria
Class: Cyanophyceae
Order: Nostocales
Family: Aphanizomenonaceae
Genus: Nodularia
Mertens 1822
Species

Nodularia armorica
Nodularia harveyana
Nodularia sphaerocarpa
Nodularia spumigena

The type species for the genus is Nodularia spumigena Mertens ex Bornet & Flahault, 1886.

Morphology

Nodularia may form solitary filaments or groups of filaments. They reproduce by the formation of hormogonia, filament breakage, and by akinetes .[3]

See also

Kruger, T., Oelmuller, R., and Luckas, B. (2009) Comparative PCR analysis of toxic Nodularia spumigena and non-toxic Nodularia harveyana (Nostocales, Cyanobacteria) with respect to the nodularia synthetase gene cluster. Eur. J. Phycol. 44 (3): 291 - 295.

References
  • C. Michael Hogan (2008) Makgadikgadi, The Megalithic Portal, ed. Andy Burnham
  • Jiří Komárek and Tomáš Hauer Cyano Database of genera: Nodularia
  • Martin Dworkin and Stanley Falkow (2006) The Prokaryotes: a handbook on the biology of bacteria, Published by Springer, ISBN 0-387-25494-3

Line notes
  1. Jiří Komárek and Tomáš Hauer
  2. C. Michael Hogan, 2008
  3. Martin Dworkin and Stanley Falkow, 2006
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