Chaetosphaeridium Klebahn, 1892: 276
Classification:
Empire Eukaryota
Kingdom Plantae
Phylum Charophyta
Class Coleochaetophyceae
Order Chaetosphaeridiales
Family Chaetosphaeridiaceae
Holotype species: Chaetosphaeridium pringsheimii Klebahn
Original publication and holotype designation:Klebahn, H. (1892). Chaetosphaeridium Pringsheimii, novum genus et nova species chlorophycearum aquae dulcis. Jahrbücher für wissenschaftliche Botanik 24: 268-282.
Taxonomic status: currently recognized as a distinct genus.
Description: Branched filaments of globose or flask-shaped cells, sometimes appearing as gelatinous colony of unicells. Cells 9-22 um in diameter; in some species connected by long, gelatinous, tubular walls. Each cell bears a single sheathed hair similar to those of Coleochaete; cultured clones have been observed to produce more than 1 hair per cell. One or 2 plate-like, parietal chloroplasts per cell, each with single pyrenoid. Asexual reproduction by biflagellate, scaly zoospores similar to Coleochaete, produced 2-4 per cell. Sexual reproduction observed in one species; oogamous; eggs and sperm discharged; naked eggs and walled zygotes up to twice as large as vegetative cells. Chaetosphaeridium attached to larger algae, aquatic macrophytes and inorganic substrata in freshwater; may occur in plankton; tropical, temperate and arctic/antarctic. Ultrastructure of zoospores similar to Coleochaete and suggests relationship to ancestry of embryophytes.
Numbers of names and species: There are 8 species (and infraspecific) names in the database at present, of which 6 have been flagged as currently accepted taxonomically.
Names: ('C' indicates a name that is currently accepted taxonomically; 'S' a homotypic or heterotypic synonym; 'U' indicates a name of uncertain taxonomic status, but which has been subjected to some verification nomenclaturally; 'P' indicates a preliminary AlgaeBase entry that has not been subjected to any kind of verification. For more information on a species click on it to activate a link to the Species database):
Chaetosphaeridium globosum (Nordstedt) Klebahn C
Chaetosphaeridium globosum var. microscopicum Playfair C
Chaetosphaeridium globosum var. depressum (West & G.S.West) G.S.West & F.E.Fritsch P
Chaetosphaeridium huberi K.Möbius C
Chaetosphaeridium minus (Hansgirg) G.S.West C
Chaetosphaeridium ovalis G.M.Smith C
Chaetosphaeridium pringsheimii Klebahn C - type
Chaetosphaeridium pringsheimii f. conferta Klebahn C
References
Marin, B. & Melkonian, M. (1999). Mesostigmatophyceae, a new class of streptophyte green algae revealed by SSU rRNA sequence comparisons. Protist 150: 399-417, 9 figs, 2 tables.
Contributors
Some of the descriptions included in AlgaeBase were originally from the unpublished Encyclopedia of Algal Genera,
organised in the 1990s by Dr Bruce Parker on behalf of the Phycological Society of America (PSA)
and intended to be published in CD format.
These AlgaeBase descriptions are now being continually updated, and each current contributor is identified above.
The PSA and AlgaeBase warmly acknowledge the generosity of all past and present contributors and particularly the work of Dr Parker.
Descriptions of chrysophyte genera were subsequently published in J. Kristiansen & H.R. Preisig (eds.). 2001. Encyclopedia of Chrysophyte Genera. Bibliotheca Phycologica 110: 1-260.
Linking to this page: http://www.algaebase.org/search/genus/detail/?genus_id=43508
Citing AlgaeBase
Cite this record as:
M.D. Guiry in Guiry, M.D. & Guiry, G.M. 2013. AlgaeBase. World-wide electronic publication, National University of Ireland, Galway. http://www.algaebase.org; searched on 25 May 2013.
Algaebase taxon LSID: urn:lsid:algaebase.org:taxname:113247
