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An Unusual Bluegreen Alga Symbiotic with Two New Species of Ulosa (Porifera: Hymeniacidonidae) from Carrie Bow Cay, Belize *
Author(s) -
Rützler Klaus
Publication year - 1981
Publication title -
marine ecology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.668
H-Index - 58
eISSN - 1439-0485
pISSN - 0173-9565
DOI - 10.1111/j.1439-0485.1981.tb00089.x
Subject(s) - sponge , biology , algae , botany , coral , thylakoid , phycobiliprotein , coral reef , reef , symbiosis , epiphyte , genus , ecology , cyanobacteria , chloroplast , bacteria , paleontology , biochemistry , gene
. Two new species of the sponge genus Ulosa were found living in symbiosis with a chroococcacean cyanophyte (cyanobacterium) in shallow Caribbean coral reefs off Belize (Central America). Ulosa funicularis is a stringy green sponge (styles: 157 × 2.5 μm, mean dimensions); U. arenosa is a thickly encrusting, shaggy, brownish‐greenish mottled species with sandy ectosome (styles: 175 × 3.6 μm). The endosymbiotic algae make up 50% of the cellular sponge tissue. The algal cells are light green, spherical, 5–9 μm in diameter, and divide by median constriction. Electron microscopy shows that cell walls are fully developed but that thylakoids are unusual for their inflated sacs, which are in communication with the nucleoplasmic regions. Although the pigment composition is typical for the Cyanophyta , the phycobiliproteins occur in considerably