MONERA

Cyanobacteria
 Kingdom Monera

Simplest life forms.

Single-celled, living in chains or clusters.
Subdivided into bacteria (consumers) and
Cyanobacteria (producers with chlorophyll)
Whittaker Five Kingdom System of Living Organisms

Kingdom Monera
(Prokaryotae)
Kingdom Protista
Kingdom Fungi
Kingdom Plantae
Kingdom Animalia
Superkingdom Prokarya (5 Kingdom -
Whittaker)
Subkingdom Eubacteria
Kingdom Bacteria
Phylum Proteobacteria
Subkingdom Archaea Phylum Spirochaetae
Phylum Cyanobacteria
Phylum Euryarchaeota
Phylum Saprospirae
Phylum Crenarchaeota Phylum Chloroflexa
Phylum Chlorobia
Phylum Aphragmabacteria
Phylum Endospora
Phylum Pirellulae
Phylum Actinobacteria
Phylum Deinococci
Phylum Thermotogae
 How do Monerans obtain food?

Make their own food by photosynthesis

Use the energy in some chemical compounds to
produce food
Some cannot produce their own food
(saprobe and parasite)
Blue-green bacteria

Live in moist
environments
Use sunlight energy to
produce food
Have chlorophyll
No chloroplasts
 Eubacteria: Cyanobacteria

Produce food and oxygen for aquatic life

Too much though, and there are problems.
Have you ever seen a pond that is covered with
smelly, green, bubbly slime?
When large amounts of nutrients enter a pond,
cyanobacteria increase in number.
Eventually the population gets so large that a
bloom is produced.
Common Cyanobacteria in NH Lakes

Merismopedia Aphanizomenom

Microcystis

Gleotrichia
Oscillatoria Anabaena
Two great classes of cyanobacteria

Class Coccogoneae: coccoid (spherical)

cyanobacteria
Class Hormogoneae: filamentous cyanobacteria
 Basic morphology of cyanobacteria
Unicellular, heteropolar (Order:
Chamaesiphonales)

Unicellular, isopolar (Order:

Chroococcales)
Unicellular, isopolar (Order: Chroococcales)

Multicellular, trichal, heterocysts not present (Order:

Oscillatoriales)
Multicellular, trichal,
heterocysts not present
(Order: Oscillatoriales)

Multicellular, trichal, heterocysts not present (Order: Oscillatoriales)

Class Coccogoneae: coccoid (spherical)
cyanobacteria
Order Chroococcales: coccoids that reproduce by binary fission.
Some genera are Gloeocapsa, Chroococcus, Anacystis,
Prochloron, Synechocystis, Synechococcus, and the
stromatolite-building coccoid Entophysalis.
Order Chamaesiphonales: coccoids that reproduce by
releasingexospores. Unlike bacillus spores, exospores are not
necessarily resistant to heat and desiccation. Chamaesiphon
and Dermocarpa are two genera in this group.
Order Pleurocapsales: coccoids that reproduce by
formingpropagules (baeocytes). The parent organism
disintegrates when the propagules are released. Unlike the
endospores of other bacteria, these propagules are not
resistant to desiccation and high heat.
 Class Hormogoneae: filamentous
cyanobacteria
Order Nostocales: filaments that either do not branch or
exhibit false branching–that is, a branch formed not by
only a single growing cell but by slippage of a row of
cells. Examples include Anabaena, Nostoc, Oscillatoria,
and Prochlorothrix.
Order Stigonematales: filaments that exhibit true
branching. A single cell dividing by binary fission in a
multicellular body may have two places of growth on it,
leading to the formation of two new filaments from the
same cell. These cyanobacteria are among the
morphologically most complex of the prokaryotes.
Examples include Fischerella and Stigonema.
 Adaptations and Advantages

Nitrogen Fixation
Heterocysts: specialized cells
containing nitrogenase enzyme able
to convert gaseous nitrogen (N2) to Heterocyst

ammonium (NH4+)

Advantage-cyanobacteria are able to

use a nutrient not readily available to
other algal genera
 Adaptations and Advantages

Gas Vesicles
Some genera have gas vesicles to control buoyancy
Advantage-allows cyanobacteria to optimize growth based on
sunlight and nutrients

N N N P N N P N N P P
P P P N P P N P P N
 Adaptations and Advantages

Akinetes:
Resting cells. The cells function as
an asexual resting state capable of
resisting harsh environments (winter)
and can germinate to form new cells
when conditions improve

Advantage-cyanobacteria can adapt Germinating Akinetes

to any situation and grow only when
conditions are optimal
 Growth Requirements

Sunlight

Warm water (hot summer days)

Calm, stagnant conditions

Phosphorus
 Stromatolite

Also known as: Algal mounds

Stromatolites are actually mounds of mud that have been

preserved. Very few stromatolites actually contain fossils of the
organisms that built them. Stromatolites accumulate because
blue-green algae (actually bacteria-like organisms) produce a
sticky film that catches mud and silt, forming a thin layer. Over
time, layer upon layer builds up forming these mounds.
 Toxins

Cyanobacteria produce biotoxins

Biotoxins are any toxins produced by a living organism (plant, fungi, animal,
bacterium)

The toxins produced by cyanobacteria are collectively referred to

as cyanotoxins

Toxins are stored in cells and released upon cell lysis or death

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Lethal dose (LD-50) of microcystin = 25 - 150 µg/kg of body weight (0.025 -
0.150 mg/kg)

Compared with some of the most venomous snakes in the world

Lethal dose (LD-50) of

microcystin = 25 - 150 µg/kg of
body weight (0.025 - 0.150 Common Name LD-50
mg/kg) (mg/kg)
Coastal Taipan 0.009
Compared with some of the Field’s Horned Viper 0.02
most venomous snakes in the
world Many Banded Krait 0.08

Indian Krait 0.089

Beaked Sea Snake 0.107

Note: this comparison based on route of exposure (intraperitoneal). LD-50 can differ am