Cyanobacteria

Asad Razzaq
 5. Cyanobacteria
• Blue green algae

• Cyanophyta

• Very important from evolutionary point of view

• First cells evolved may have been feeding on

organic matter but later they diverged their
attention towards getting energy form inorganic
sources

• Evolution of the pigment made it possible to

capture light energy
 5. Cyanobacteria
• Started photosynthesis 2 billion years ago which gradually changed
conditions on earth and made it suitable for higher organisms

• Oxygen increased from 1% to 21%

• Ozone layer got thick in upper atmosphere thus protecting DNA from UV

• It encouraged other autotrophs to appear and survive on Earth

• Some members fix Nitrogen through enlarged colorless cells (heterocyst)

 Habitat
• Widely distributed
• Fresh water,
• sea water,
• salt marshes,
• moist rocks,
• tree trunks,
• moist soils,
• hot springs,
• frozen waters.
• They are one of the earliest colonizers of barren areas
• Most in fresh water, or in water which is rich in organic matter
• Some species fix nitrogen and live in a wide variety of moist soils and
water, either freely or in a symbiotic relationship with plants or lichen-
forming fungi
 Habit
• Few unicellular forms

• Majority are colonial

• Colonies either filamentous or non-

filamentous

• Each filament consists of a sheath of

mucilage and one or more cellular
strands called trichomes
 Trichome and Filament
• Single trichome filaments may further be of two types,
• homocystous (= undifferentiated, e.g., Oscillatoria) and
• heterocystous (= differentiated, having heterocysts, e.g., Nostoc)

• Spirulina has a spirally coiled

filament. Colonies develop in
some cases, e.g., Nostoc.

• Flagella are absent but

gliding movements are
known in a number of
cyanobacteria
 Cell Structure
• Cell structure is typically
prokaryotic—
• one envelope organisation,
• peptidoglycan wall,
• naked DNA,
• 70S ribosomes and
• absence of membrane bound
structures like
• endoplasmic reticulum,
• mitochondria,
• Golgi bodies,
• plastids,
• lysosomes,
• sap vacuoles
 Cell Structure
• The cell wall is four layered with peptidoglycan present in the second
layer.

• The outer part of the protoplast (chromoplasm) contains a number of

photosynthetic thylakoids.

• The thylakoids lie freely in the cytoplasm.

• Their membranes contain

• chlorophyll a,
• carotenes
• xanthophyll’s
• phycobilins
• Chlorophyll b is usually absent.
 Phycobilisomes
• Small granules called phycobilisomes are attached to the
thylakoids
• Phycobilins are present in phycobilisomes
• Phycobilins are of three types
• phycocyanin (blue green),
• allophycocyanin (blue) and
• phycoerythrin (red).
 Phycobilisomes
• A few genera lack phycobilisomes and have Chlorophyll b instead (
Prochloron, Prochlorococcus, Prochlorothrix)

• Ancestors to plastids

• Oxygenic photosynthesis
 Inclusions
• Four types of inclusions occur in the cells.
• α-granules (cyanophycean starch),
• β-granules (lipid droplets),
• volutin granules (store inorganic Phosphates)
• polyhedral bodies (ribulose biphosphate
carboxylase).
 Heterocyst
• large-sized pale coloured thick-
walled cell
• May be terminal, intercalary or
lateral
• The thick wall is impermeable to
oxygen but permeable to nitrogen.
• Mucilage sheath is absent.
• Photosystem II is absent.
• Thylakoids lack phycobilisomes.
 Heterocyst
• Therefore, photosynthesis is absent but cyclic
photophosphorylation occurs.
• Heterocyst is dependent for its nourishment on adjacent vegeta-
tive cells.
• nitrogenase
• specialised to fix N
 Gas Vacuoles
• Gas vacuoles /pseudo-vacuoles are found

• Each gas vacuole consists of a number of

submicroscopic units called gas vesicles

• about 75 nm in diameter with conical ends and

about 200-1,000 nm in length.

• Gas vacuoles function as light screen; provide

buoyancy regulating mechanism and pneumatic
strength

• The most dramatic instances of floatation due to

gas vacuoles are seen in cyanobacteria that form
massive accumulations (blooms) in lakes.
 DNA
• A naked, circular, double stranded DNA lies coiled generally in
the central part of the cytoplasm known as centroplasm.

• The coiled up DNA is equivalent to a single chromosome of

higher organisms.

• It is often called nucleoid.

• Like bacteria, small circular DNA segments may also occur in

addition to nucleoid.
 Reproduction
• Cyanobacteria mostly multiply by asexual methods like:
• binary fission,
• fragmentation,
• hormogonia,
• akinetes,
• endospores,
• exospores, etc.

• Gene recombination can occur by three types of parasexual

methods:
• conjugation,
• transformation and
• transduction