''Nodularia'' is a genus of filamentous nitrogen-fixing cyanobacteria, or blue-green algae. They occur mainly in brackish or salinic waters, such as the

hypersaline A hypersaline lake is a landlocked body of water that contains significant concentrations of sodium chloride, brines, and other salts, with saline levels surpassing that of ocean water (3.5%, i.e. ). Specific microbial species can thrive in hig ...

Makgadikgadi Pans The Makgadikgadi Pan ( Tswana pronunciation ), a salt pan situated in the middle of the dry savanna of north-eastern Botswana, is one of the largest salt flats in the world. The pan is all that remains of the formerly enormous Lake Makgadi ...

, the Peel-Harvey Estuary in Western Australia or the

Baltic Sea The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden and the North and Central European Plain. The sea stretches from 53°N to 66°N latitude and fr ...

. ''Nodularia'' cells occasionally form heavy

algal bloom An algal bloom or algae bloom is a rapid increase or accumulation in the population of algae in freshwater or marine water systems. It is often recognized by the discoloration in the water from the algae's pigments. The term ''algae'' encompas ...

s. Some strains produce a

cyanotoxin Cyanotoxins are toxins produced by cyanobacteria (also known as blue-green algae). Cyanobacteria are found almost everywhere, but particularly in lakes and in the ocean where, under high concentration of phosphorus conditions, they reproduce exp ...

called

nodularin R Nodularins are potent toxins produced by the cyanobacterium ''Nodularia spumigena'', among others. This aquatic, photosynthetic cyanobacterium forms visible colonies that present as algal blooms in brackish water bodies throughout the world. The l ...

, which is harmful to humans. The

type species In zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the species that contains the biological type specimen( ...

for the genus is ''

Nodularia spumigena ''Nodularia'' is a genus of filamentous nitrogen-fixing cyanobacteria, or blue-green algae. They occur mainly in brackish or salinic waters, such as the hypersaline Makgadikgadi Pans, the Peel-Harvey Estuary in Western Australia or the Baltic S ...

'' Mertens ex Bornet & Flahault, 1886.

Morphology

''Nodularia'' may form solitary filaments or groups of filaments. They reproduce by the formation of

hormogonia Hormogonia are motile filaments of cells formed by some cyanobacteria in the order Nostocales and Stigonematales. They are formed during vegetative reproduction in unicellular, filamentous cyanobacteria, and some may contain heterocysts and a ...

, filament breakage, and by

akinetes An akinete is an enveloped, thick-walled, non-motile, dormant cell formed by filamentous, heterocyst-forming cyanobacteria under the order Nostocales and Stigonematales. Akinetes are resistant to cold and desiccation. They also accumulate and ...

.Martin Dworkin and Stanley Falkow, 2006

References

*C. Michael Hogan (2008
''Makgadikgadi'', The Megalithic Portal, ed. Andy Burnham
*Jiří Komárek and Tomáš Hauer
Cyano Database of genera: Nodularia
' *Martin Dworkin and Stanley Falkow (2006) ''The Prokaryotes: a handbook on the biology of bacteria'', Published by Springer,

Line notes

{{Taxonbar, from=Q148757 Nostocales Cyanobacteria genera

Morphology

See also

References

Line notes