Chlamydomonadales, also known as Volvocales, are an order of flagellated or pseudociliated green algae, specifically of the Chlorophyceae. Chlamydomonadales can form planar or spherical colonies. These vary from Gonium up to Volvox. Each cell has two flagella, and is similar in appearance to Chlamydomonas, with the flagella throughout the colony moving in coordination.
The Chrysophyceae, usually called chrysophytes, chrysomonads, golden-brown algae or golden algae are a large group of algae, found mostly in freshwater. Golden algae is also commonly used to refer to a single species, Prymnesium parvum, which causes fish kills.
The Labyrinthulomycetes (ICBN) or Labyrinthulea (ICZN) are a class of protists that produce a network of filaments or tubes, which serve as tracks for the cells to glide along and absorb nutrients for them. The two main groups are the labyrinthulids and thraustochytrids. They are mostly marine, commonly found as parasites on algae and seagrasses or as decomposers on dead plant material. They also include some parasites of marine invertebrates.
Cafeteria roenbergensis is a small bacterivorous marine flagellate. It was discovered by Danish marine ecologist Tom Fenchel and named by him and taxonomist David J. Patterson in 1988. It is in one of three genera of bicosoecids, and the first discovered of two known Cafeteria species. Bicosoecids belong to a broad group, the stramenopiles, that includes diatoms, brown and golden algae collectively known as Heterokonta, protozoa such as opalinids and actinophryid heliozoa, and oomycete fungi. The species is found primarily in coastal waters where there are high concentrations of bacteria on which it grazes. Its voracious appetite plays a significant role in regulating bacteria populations.
Eudorina is a paraphyletic genus in the volvocine green algae clade. Eudorina colonies consist of 16, 32 or 64 individual cells grouped together. Each individual cell contains flagella which allow the colony to move as a whole when the individual cells beat their flagella together. Description by GM Smith :
Bryopsis is a genus of marine green algae in the family Bryopsidaceae. It is frequently a pest in aquariums, where it is commonly referred to as hair algae.
Chlorococcum is a genus of green algae, in the family Chlorococcaceae. The alga may be useful in the flocculation of lipids from wastewater.
Polytomella is a genus of green algae in the family Dunaliellaceae. Polytomella is a free-living, flagellated, nonphotosynthetic green alga with a highly reduced, linear fragmented mitochondrial genome. Polytomella, as it exists today, bears evidence of once having a functional photosynthetic plastid which has over evolutionary time changed such that it would appear now to have no genome or gene expressing mechanisms remaining to it. Having transitioned completely to heterotrophy, Polytomella uses organic acids, alcohols and monosaccharides as its carbon source. Despite being an evolutionary descendant of the green algae, Polytomella is a colourless organism because it has lost its photosynthetic ability.
Trebouxia is a unicellular green alga. It is a photosynthetic organism that can exist in almost all habitats found in polar, tropical, and temperate regions. It can either exist in a symbiotic relationship with fungi in the form of lichen or it can survive independently as a free-living organism alone or in colonies. Trebouxia is the most common photobiont in extant lichens. It is a primary producer of marine, freshwater and terrestrial ecosystems. It uses carotenoids and chlorophyll a and b to harvest energy from the sun and provide nutrients to various animals and insects.
Trentepohlia is a genus of filamentous chlorophyte green algae in the family Trentepohliaceae, living free on terrestrial supports such as tree trunks and wet rocks or symbiotically in lichens. The filaments of Trentepohlia have a strong orange colour caused by the presence of large quantities of carotenoid pigments which mask the green of the chlorophyll.
Cosmarium is a genus of fresh water organisms belonging to the Charophyta, a division of green algae from which the land plants (Embryophyta) emerged.
In taxonomy, Pleurotaenium is a genus of green algae, specifically of the Placoderm desmids (Desmidiaceae).
Coccomyxa is a genus of green algae, in the family Coccomyxaceae. This genus is defined by their small, elliptical to spherical shape, and the presence of a simple parietal chloroplast. These features, along with their occurrence in various lifestyles such as free-living, parasitic, or as photobionts, have been used to identify over 40 species. Using additional morphological features, such as brown akinetes formation, allows for the differentiation between Coccomyxa and the genus Pseudococcomyxa, as they tend to share some morphological characteristics like the general cell shape and one-sided mucilage cap. Recent molecular analysis, however, indicates that the genus Pseudococcomyxa is contained within different Coccomyxa clades, signaling the fact that the two genera are the same. Coccomyxa has often been used as a model organism, and its genome is being completely sequenced. The genus is also an attractive candidate for biofuels.
The Mesostigmatophyceae are a class of basal green algae found in freshwater originally containing two species in a single genus, Mesostigma. Now, a clade containing Chlorokybus and Spirotaenia has been added.. The Mesostigmatophyceae are either placed as sister to all other green algae, or more conventionally as sister to all Streptophyta.
Postgaardi mariagerensis is a species of single-celled eukaryote in the Euglenozoa. Some have classified it in a class called Postgaardea along with Calkinsia, but as of 2009, Postgaardi is not well enough known to confidently determine its relationship with other organisms in the Euglenozoa. Both it and Calkinsia do live in low oxygen environments and are covered with bacteria which live on their surface.
Volvox globator is a species of green algae of the genus Volvox. It was originally described by Carl Linnaeus in his 1758 work Systema Naturae. In 1856 its sexuality was described by Ferdinand Cohn and is the same as Sphaeropleaannulina. It is colonial flagellate found in freshwaters. The colony consists of thousands of zooids arranged in a single peripheral layer. each zooids shows two flagella, two or more contractile vacuoles, cup like chloroplast, a single nucleus, a red stigma but no gullet. Nutrition is holophytic. Size of colony increases by binary fission. In the colony the zooids called parthenogonidia repeatedly divide to form daughter colonies which are released from parent colony.
Kiitoksia is a genus of aquatic protozoa. The taxonomic position of the genus is still uncertain and it has not been placed in any classification below the kingdom of Protista.
The genus Aplanochytrium is part of the class Labyrinthulomycetes. It is a sister genus of Labyrinthula and thraustochytrids. The major characteristic of all three genera is the production of an extension of the plasma membrane and the ectoplasm called the ectoplasmic net, but its use is different in each genera. Aplanochytrium cells are not embedded in the ectoplasmic net but can move by gliding on the ectoplasmic threads.
Mastocarpus papillatus, sometimes called Turkish washcloth, black tar spot, or grapestone is a species of red algae in the family Phyllophoraceae. It is sometimes confused with the distantly related Turkish towel which is of a similar texture but larger. The specific epithet papillatus is due to the nipple-like projections on the female gametophyte which can give the texture of a terrycloth washcloth found at a Turkish bath.
Cryptoglena(/ˌkɹɪptoʊˈgliːnə/) is a genus of photosynthetic euglenids that was first described in 1831 by Christian Gottfried Ehrenberg. Today, its circumscription is controversial: Bicudo and Menezes consider twenty-one species as Cryptoglena, of which, nine are uncertain. Cryptoglena species are water-based, living in both freshwater and marine environments. They are biflagellated, with one internal flagellum and one external flagellum, which allows movement through environments as demonstrated by Kim and Shin in the species C. pigra. The cells of Cryptoglena resemble a coffee bean, as they have a groove that runs the length of the cell on one side and makes them U-shaped in cross section. They are ovoid in shape and are small, with the larger cells being on average 25 x 15 μm. After being first described in 1831, little work was done on the genus until the late 1970s and early 1980s, after the scanning electron microscope completed development and was implemented into laboratories. Work then proceeded with the developments of molecular biology, which allows for classifications based on DNA sequences. For Cryptoglena the main DNA used for classification are small subunit (SSU) and large subunit (LSU) rDNA.
