Falcomonas D.R.A.Hill, 1991

Holotype species: Falcomonas daucoides (W.Conrad & H.Kufferath) D.R.A.Hill

Original publication and holotype designation: Hill, D.R.A. (1991). Chroomonas and other blue-green cryptomonads. Journal of Phycology 27: 133-145, 44 figs.

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Description: Free-swimming, ventrally curved, acuminate, biflagellate monads; a longitudinal furrow extends posteriorly from the subapical vestibulum for about half the length of the cell and is lined with, usually, two to four longitudinal rows of ejectisomes; a gullet is lacking; a single chloroplast, pyrenoid and nucleomorph, the chloroplast, occupying the anterior two-thirds of the cell, with the phycobiliprotein Cr-phycocyanin 569, the color a rich blue-green; periplast with an inner and superficial layer of plates sandwiching the plasma membrane. Sexual reproduction is unknown; reproduction is by simple cell division. Palmelloid colonies apparently are not formed; cyst production is unknown. The ultrastructure has been examined. The periplast plates are hexagonal; the inner plates with strong attachment sites to the plasma membrane along their posterior margins; the superficial plates being composed of minute subunits in a crystalline arrangement, with lax granular borders. Specialized regions of the periplast include a mid-ventral band and a vestibular plate. The pyrenoidal matrix has no traversing thylakoids, but has an invagination of the periplastidial cytoplasm. The nucleomorph is not associated with this invagination, nor with the pyrenoid. It is likely that Falcomonas has a worldwide distribution in coastal marine habitats; it has only been reported from Belgium and southern Australia (and possibly Japan), but has probably been overlooked elsewhere due to its small size and delicate nature, it is not easy to establish in permanent culture. A unique type of phycocyanin was recently described in Falcomonas daucoides.

Information contributed by: D.R.A. Hill. The most recent alteration to this page was made on 2022-10-25 by E.A. Molinari Novoa.

Taxonomic status: This name is of an entity that is currently accepted taxonomically.

Most recent taxonomic treatment adopted: Kawai, H. & Nakayama, T. (2015). Introduction (Heterokontobionta p.p.), Cryptophyta, Dinophyta, Haptophyta, Heterokontophyta (except Coscinodiscophyceae, Mediophyceae, Fragilariophyceae, Bacillariophyceae, Phaeophyceae, Eustigmatophyceae), Chlorarachniophyta, Euglenophyta. In: Syllabus of plant families. Adolf Engler's Syllabus der Pflanzenfamilien. Ed. 13. Phototrophic eukaryotic Algae. Glaucocystophyta, Cryptophyta, Dinophyta/Dinozoa, Haptophyta, Heterokontophyta/Ochrophyta, Chlorarachnniophyta/Cercozoa, Chlorophyta, Streptophyta p.p. (Frey, W. Eds), pp. 11-64, 103-139. Stuttgart: Borntraeger Science Publishers.

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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: https://www.algaebase.org/search/genus/detail/?genus_id=45506

Citing AlgaeBase
Cite this record as:
E.A. Molinari Novoa in Guiry, M.D. & Guiry, G.M. 25 October 2022. AlgaeBase. World-wide electronic publication, National University of Ireland, Galway. https://www.algaebase.org; searched on 23 November 2024