Ocean productivity largely refers to the production of organic matter by “phytoplankton,” plants suspended in the ocean, most of which are single-celled. Phytoplankton are “photoautotrophs,” harvesting light to convert inorganic to organic carbon, and they supply this organic carbon to diverse “heterotrophs,” organisms that obtain their energy solely from the respiration of organic matter. Open...

It is proposed that the dematiaceous hyphomycete Cladosporium bantianum (Saccardo) Borelli be transferred to the genus Xylohypha (Fries) Mason as Xylohypha bantiana (Saccardo) McGinnis, Padhye, Borelli, et Ajello. This new combination is necessary because X. bantiana produces conidiophores that are indistinguishable from its vegetative hyphae and one-celled, smooth-walled conidia that are borne...

High-speed imaging and simulations show that the single-celled organism called Chlamydomonas reinhardtii beats its flagella on separate planes, explaining how it generates helical movement.

Cell walls in the giant-celled green alga Valonia utricularis exhibit a “crossed-fibril” type of cell wall structure, wherein cellulose microfibrils (CMFs) are arranged uniform orientation each lamella. The CMF differs by 80° to 120° between neighboring lamellae. arrangement nascent CMFs deposited on regenerating protoplasts was investigated using an atomic force microscope for first time organ...

Diatoms are single-celled algaes that make photonic-crystal-like silica shells or frustules with hierarchical micro- & nano-scale features consisting of two-dimensional periodic pores. This article reports the use of diatom frustules as an integration platform to enhance localized surface plasmon resonances of self-assembled silver nanoparticles (NPs) on the surface of diatom frustules. Theoret...

A study of ancient marine algae has found that climate change affected their growth and skeleton structure, which has potential significance for today’s equivalent microscopic organisms that play an important role in the world’s oceans. Coccolithophores, a type of marine algae, are prolific in the ocean today and have been for millions of years. These single-celled plankton produce calcite skel...