D-Enzyme (4-a-glucanotransferase, EC 2.4.1.25) from cultured sym biotic Nostoc and Chlo­ rella has been partially purified and characterized. The enzyme catalyzes the disproportionation o f m altooligosaccharides and is able to form m altooligosaccharides from soluble starch and D-glucose. The properties o f D -enzym e from Nostoc and Chlorella are similar with respect to substrate specificity,...

Nostoc commune Vaucher, a macroscopic cyanobacterium, has long been appreciated as a healthy food and traditional medicine worldwide. Accumulated evidence has demonstrated that it possesses a wide range of remarkably protective physiological and pharmacological activities, largely based on animal and in vitro studies. In this review, we summarise and update evidence regarding the chemical compo...

INTRODUCTION is attributable to the parietal distribution of the vacuoles within the cells of the particular strain of blue-green alga used in these experiments . Gas vacuoles are small, cylindrical, gas-filled vesicles which occur in certain procaryotic cells . They are found in numerous blue-green algae, many photosynthetic bacteria, some halophilic bacteria, and some planktonic freshwater ba...

(New aerophytic morphospecies of Nostoc (Cyanobacteria) from São Paulo State, Brazil). Brazilian aerophytic biotopes are almost completely unknown regarding to cyanobacterial flora. During the study of this special flora, three morphospecies of the genus Nostoc from different habitats in the State of São Paulo, Brazil, were found. Based on their morphology, especially by formation and shape of ...

Because the number of fungal species (mycobionts) exceeds the number of algae and cyanobacteria (photobionts) found in lichens by more than two orders of magnitude, reciprocal one-to-one specificity between one fungal species and one photobiont across their entire distribution is not expected in this symbiotic system, and has not previously been observed. The specificity of the cyanobacterium N...

Four chlorophyll-protein complexes have been resolved from the cyanophyte, Nostoc sp., by sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis at 4 C. Complexes solubilized by SDS from Spinacia oleracea were run for comparison. As has been well documented, the P700-chlorophyll a-protein complex from the higher plant and blue-green algal samples are similar, and the light-harvesting p...

Three new cyanobacterial strains, that have been previously purified from the hydroid Dynamena pumila (L., 1758), isolated from the White Sea, were studied using scanning and transmission electron microscopy methods and were characterized by using almost complete sequence of the 16S rRNA gene, internal transcribed spacer 16S-23S rRNA, and part of the gene for 23S rRNA. The full nucleotide seque...

Invasion by the exotic annual grass Bromus tectorum has increased the cover and connectivity of fine litter in the sagebrush steppes of western North America. This litter tends to cover biological soil crusts, which could affect their metabolism and growth. To investigate this possible phenomenon, biological soil crusts dominated by either the moss Bryum argenteum or the lichen Diploschistes mu...

We present a study about AFM imaging of living, moving or self-immobilized bacteria in their genuine physiological liquid medium. No external immobilization protocol, neither chemical nor mechanical, was needed. For the first time, the native gliding movements of Gram-negative Nostoc cyanobacteria upon the surface, at speeds up to 900 µm/h, were studied by AFM. This was possible thanks to an im...