Chroomonas Hansgirg, 1885: 230
Classification:
Empire Eukaryota
Kingdom Chromista
Phylum Cryptophyta
Class Cryptophyceae
Order Pyrenomonadales
Family Chroomonadaceae
Holotype species: Chroomonas nordstedtii Hansgirg
Currently accepted name for the type species: Cryptomonas nordstedtii (Hansgirg) Senn
Taxonomic status: currently recognized as a distinct genus.
Description: Free-swimming, elliptic, biflagellate monads that often form thickly mucilaginous, palmelloid colonies. Lacking a furrow, the cells have a longitudinal, tubular gullet that extends posteriorly from the subapical vestibulum. The gullet is lined, usually, with two to four longitudinal rows of ejectisomes. Single chloroplast, pyrenoid and nucleomorph; the chloroplast containing the phycobiliprotein, Cr-phycocyanin 645 (and, rarely, Cr-phycocyanin 630), and varying in color from sky blue to blue-green and green. With or without an eyespot. Periplast with inner and superficial plates sandwiching the plasma membrane. Sexual reproduction is unknown, reproduction being by simple cell division often in the palmelloid state. Cyst production is unknown. The ultrastructure of several species has been examined. The inner periplast plates are rectangular and have strong attachment sites to the plasma membrane along their posterior margins. The superficial periplast plates are also rectangular and composed of small subunits in a crystalline arrangement and surrounded by lax fibrillar borders. The nucleomorph is not associated with the pyrenoid. The matrix of the pyrenoid is traversed by one or two pairs of thylakoids. The eyespot is located on an isolated medial lobe of the chloroplast and has an associated vacuolar system. The flagella possess an imbricate layer of rosulate scales. Mitosis and cytokinesis have been examined in Chroomonas africana. The genus has a cosmopolitan distribution in both marine and freshwater habitats, every continent. Some fifty species have been assigned to the genus but it is likely that after revision the number will be greatly reduced. Most species are described from European waters and many are known only from their type localities. Butcher (1967) extended the definition of the genus to include red-brown species and this approach was also adopted by Bourrelly (1970) and Starmach (1974), but has not been followed in more recent taxonomic treatments (Santore 1984, Hill 1991).
Numbers of names and species: There are 55 species (and infraspecific) names in the database at present, of which 20 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):
Chroomonas acuta Utermöhl S
Chroomonas africana Meyer & Pienaar C
Chroomonas americana (B.M.Davis) D.R.A.Hill C
Chroomonas amphioxieia (Conrad) Butcher S
Chroomonas atrorosea Butcher S
Chroomonas baltica (J.Büttner) N.Carter C
Chroomonas breviciliata Nygaard C
Chroomonas breviflexa Schiller C
Chroomonas caudata L.Geitler S
Chroomonas coerulea (Geitler) Skuja C
Chroomonas collegionis Butcher S
Chroomonas collegionis Butcher ex D.R.A.Hill C
Chroomonas commutata (Pascher) R.W.Butcher C
Chroomonas cor Schiller C
Chroomonas cornu Schiller C
Chroomonas cyaneus Lackey S
Chroomonas daucoides W.Conrad & H.Kufferath S
Chroomonas diplococca Butcher C
Chroomonas dispersa Butcher C
Chroomonas elegans Schiller C
Chroomonas extensa Butcher C
Chroomonas falcata Butcher S
Chroomonas fragarioides Butcher S
Chroomonas fulva (Butcher) Butcher S
Chroomonas guttula Conrad C
Chroomonas heteromorpha Butcher S
Chroomonas lateralis (Butcher) Butcher S
Chroomonas ligulata G.Novarino & I.A.N.Lucas C
Chroomonas marina (Büttner) Butcher S
Chroomonas mesostigmatica Butcher ex D.R.A.Hill C
Chroomonas mesostigmatica Butcher S
Chroomonas minima Czosnowski C
Chroomonas minutissima (R.E.Norris) F.J.Taylor C
Chroomonas monococca Butcher C
Chroomonas nana Schiller C
Chroomonas nana Butcher C
Chroomonas nordstedtii f. minor Nygaard C
Chroomonas nordstedtii Hansgirg S - type
Chroomonas pauciplastida P
Chroomonas phaselos Conrad & Kufferath S
Chroomonas placoidea Butcher ex G.Novarino & I.A.N.Lucas C
Chroomonas plurococca Butcher C
Chroomonas pochmannii Huber-Pestalozzi C
Chroomonas pulex Pascher C
Chroomonas rosenbergii Huber-Pestalozzi S
Chroomonas salina f. adolescens (Wislouch) Butcher P
Chroomonas salina f. leucofera (Wislouch) Butcher P
Chroomonas salina f. oculus-bovis (Wislouch) Butcher P
Chroomonas salina f. granulata (Wislouch) Butcher P
Chroomonas salina f. eroticon (Wislouch) Butcher P
Chroomonas salina (Wislough) Butcher S
Chroomonas salina f. carterae (Wislouch) Butcher P
Chroomonas salina f. refracta (Wislouch) Butcher P
Chroomonas vectensis N.Carter C
Chroomonas virescens (Butcher) Butcher C
References
Throndsen, J. (1996). The planktonic marine flagellates. In: Identifying marine phytoplankton. (Tomas, C.R. Eds), pp. 591-730. San Diego: Academic Press.
Hill, D.R.A. (1991). Chroomonas and other blue-green cryptomonads. Journal of Phycology 27: 133-145, 44 figs.
Hoef-Emden, K. (2008). Molecular phylogeny of phycocyanin-containing cryptophytes: evolution of biliproteins and geographical distribution. Journal of Phycology 44: 985-993.
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=43570
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 21 May 2013.
Algaebase taxon LSID: urn:lsid:algaebase.org:taxname:6829
