title: Morphological characteristics of Cylindrospermopsis raciborskii (Wołoszyńska) Seenayya et Subba Raju in laboratory cultures.
abstract: The freshwater cyanoprokaryote Cylindrospermopsis raciborskii has become increasingly prevalent in tropical and temperate water bodies worldwide. The morphological characteristics of this species were investigated under different growth rates in continuous cultures (at steady state) and in batch (phosphorus starved) cultures with different mineral nitrogen forms. The species displays an enormous morphological variability under controlled condition. The occurrence of extreme long twisted filaments was found near the maximum growth rate and under high ammonium concentration. Rarely the heterocytes of Cylindrospermopsis raciborskii arise intercalarly between two neighbouring cells(i.e. intercalary heterocytes were found). The morphological features are highly effected by environmental conditions and nutrient availability. Under P-starvation extreme morphology appeared. The specifications of C. africana and C. cuspis overlap with that of C. raciborskii accordingly this is not clear characteristic feature to distinguish species. A pure culture of a pro- or eukaryote alga growing in continuous cultures is a good method for giving a suitable overview on all morphological possibilities of a tested organism.
authors.affiliation: Balaton Limnological Research Institute of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Tihany, Hungary. hisam@tres.blki.hu
authors.forename: H M
authors.initials: HM
authors.lastname: Shafik
mesh_terms: D002455:Cell Division; D003470:Culture Media; D000458:Cyanobacteria / Q000166:cytology / Q000254:growth & development* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D005618:Fresh Water / Q000382:microbiology
chemical_list: D003470:Culture Media