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A GREEN DINOFLAGELLATE WITH CHLOROPHYLLS a and b: MORPHOLOGY, FINE STRUCTURE OF THE CHLOROPLAST AND CHLOROPHYLL COMPOSITION 1
Author(s) -
Watanabe Makoto M.,
Takeda Yoshie,
Sasa Tsutomu,
Inouye Isao,
Suda Shoichiro,
Sawaguchi Tomohiro,
Chihara Mitsuo
Publication year - 1987
Publication title -
journal of phycology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.85
H-Index - 127
eISSN - 1529-8817
pISSN - 0022-3646
DOI - 10.1111/j.1529-8817.1987.tb04148.x
Subject(s) - pyrenoid , chloroplast , biology , gymnodinium , dinoflagellate , cytoplasm , thylakoid , organelle , nucleus , chloroplast membrane , plastid , vesicle , botany , microbiology and biotechnology , biochemistry , membrane , ecology , phytoplankton , nutrient , gene
A green‐colored marine unicell has been grown in unialgal culture and its morphology, chloroplast fine structure, and chlorophyll composition investigated. The organism is typical of dinoflagellates in its shape, flagellation, nucleus, mitochondria, and trichocysts. It is similar to Gymnodinium but possesses fine body scales. Chloroplasts and two kinds of vesicles bounded by double membranes, but no organelles obviously identifiable as nuclei or mitochondria, are associated in ribosome‐dense cytoplasm separated by a double membrane from the dinophycean cytoplasm. The chloroplasts are unlike any previously reported for dinoflagellates. Each is enclosed by an envelope consisting of a double membrane. Chloroplast lamellae consist of three appressed thylakoids. Interlamellar pyrenoids are present. Pigment analysis reveals chlorophylls a and b but not chlorophyll c. It seems likely that the organism is an undescribed dinoflagellate containing an endosymbiont with chlorophylls a and b and that the reduction of the endosymbiont nucleus and mitochondria has permitted a more initmate symbiosis.