{"id":873,"date":"2021-05-21T13:24:29","date_gmt":"2021-05-21T17:24:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/water-science\/?page_id=873"},"modified":"2021-09-30T15:52:51","modified_gmt":"2021-09-30T19:52:51","slug":"nostoc","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/water-science\/freshwater-cyanobacteria-of-new-jersey\/visual-guide-to-cyanobacteria-in-new-jersey\/filamentous\/heterocyte-forming\/nostoc\/","title":{"rendered":"Nostoc"},"content":{"rendered":"

Taxonomy<\/h2>\n
\n
Order<\/dt>\n
Nostocales<\/dd>\n
Family<\/dt>\n
Nostocaceae<\/dd>\n
Genus<\/dt>\n
Nostoc<\/em><\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Examples of Nostoc<\/em><\/h2>\n
\n
\"nostoc<\/figure>\n

A spherical Nostoc colony, about 3 mm in diameter.<\/p><\/div>

\n
\"nostoc<\/figure>\n

100X total magnification; 10 \u03bcm scale bar.<\/p><\/div><\/p><\/div>

\n
\"nostoc<\/figure>\n

400X total magnification; 10 \u03bcm scale bar.<\/p><\/div>

\n
\"nostoc<\/figure>\n

400X total magnification; 10 \u03bcm scale bar.<\/p><\/div><\/p><\/div>\n

Morphology<\/h2>\n

Thallus gelatinous; microscopic to macroscopic; spherical, or later forming gelatinous mats or irregular masses; a firm mucilaginous sheath usually covers the whole colony exterior, the surface of which may be smooth or warty. Within colonies, filaments are irregularly entangled, sometimes very densely; in earlier stages, trichomes are usually more concentrated near the surface of the colony, and later distributed throughout the colonial mucilage. Colonial mucilage colorless to yellowish-green or yellow-brownish. Life cycle of many species is complex, with colony characteristics changing throughout.<\/p>\n

Trichomes surrounded by their own firm, wide, mucilaginous sheaths; individual sheaths not always apparent. Trichomes flexuous, coiled, or curled; uniseriate, unbranched, isopolar, not narrowed towards ends, moniliform, constricted at crosswalls. Cells pale to bright blue-green to olive-green; spherical or barrel-shaped, rarely cylindrical; end cells rounded, similar to other vegetative cells.<\/p>\n

Heterocytes spherical, oval, or barrel-shaped; solitary (only rarely with a few in a row); terminal or intercalary; often at both ends of hormogonia; sometimes in an apical position of early-stage colonies. Akinetes usually oval to ellipsoidal, slightly larger than vegetative cells (twice as large, at most); developing apoheterocytically, forming in rows between heterocytes; all the cells in a trichome may successively turn into akinetes.<\/p>\n

This diverse group is likely to be (further) divided into multiple genera.<\/p>\n

Ecology<\/h2>\n

Mostly benthic; epiphytic, epipelic, and epilithic in ponds, pools, lakes, streams, and rivers; also found on soils.<\/p>\n

References<\/h2>\n
    \n
  • Johansen, J. R., & Kom\u00e1rek, J. (2015). Filamentous Cyanobacteria. In J. D. Wehr, R. G. Sheath, & J. P. Kociolek (Eds.), Freshwater Algae of North America: Ecology and Classification<\/em> (2nd ed., pp. 183-224). Waltham, MA: Elsevier.<\/li>\n
  • Kom\u00e1rek, J. (2013). Cyanoprokaryota-3. Teil\/Part 3: Heterocytous Genera (J. R. Johansen, Ed.). In B. B\u00fcdel, G. G\u00e4rtner, L. Krienitz, & M. Schagerl (Eds.), S\u00fc\u00dfwasserflora von Mitteleuropa<\/em> (Vol. 19\/3, pp. 953-956). Heidelberg, Germany: Springer Spektrum.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Taxonomy Order Nostocales Family Nostocaceae Genus Nostoc Examples of Nostoc Morphology Thallus gelatinous; microscopic to macroscopic; spherical, or later forming gelatinous mats or irregular masses; a firm mucilaginous sheath usually covers the whole colony exterior, the surface of which may be smooth or warty. Within colonies, filaments are irregularly entangled, sometimes very densely; in earlier […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":611,"parent":827,"menu_order":4,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-873","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/water-science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/873","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/water-science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/water-science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/water-science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/34"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/water-science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=873"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/water-science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/873\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1085,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/water-science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/873\/revisions\/1085"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/water-science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/827"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/water-science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/611"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/water-science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=873"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}