Wayne Lanier PhD
Anabaena_HMC1000_9722a
One filament of the Cyanobacterium Anabaena, from a Vernal Pool in the Warm Springs area of the Don Edwards San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge. Salinity was about 7-PPT.
This photomicrograph was taken with a Nikon Coolpix P5100 using Hoffman Modulation Contrast optics with oil immersion at 1,000x magnification.
Anabaena was the dominant organism in the floating microbial mat in the pond, exceeding other microorganisms by a factor of about 300-fold.
Anabaena is a nitrogen fixer. The large cells in the filament are the Heterocysts, which isolate the nitrogen-fixing process from oxygen [oxygen inhibits the nitrogenase enzymes].
The smaller, square-shaped cells carry out photosynthesis, fixing carbon and producing oxygen. This was readily evident by the masses of small bubbles in the floating mat.
Notice the fine "hairs" on the Heterocyst cells. These are some of the other bacilli that inhabit the mat and cluster around the Heterocyst cells, probably for nitrate.
Anabaena_HMC1000_9722a
One filament of the Cyanobacterium Anabaena, from a Vernal Pool in the Warm Springs area of the Don Edwards San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge. Salinity was about 7-PPT.
This photomicrograph was taken with a Nikon Coolpix P5100 using Hoffman Modulation Contrast optics with oil immersion at 1,000x magnification.
Anabaena was the dominant organism in the floating microbial mat in the pond, exceeding other microorganisms by a factor of about 300-fold.
Anabaena is a nitrogen fixer. The large cells in the filament are the Heterocysts, which isolate the nitrogen-fixing process from oxygen [oxygen inhibits the nitrogenase enzymes].
The smaller, square-shaped cells carry out photosynthesis, fixing carbon and producing oxygen. This was readily evident by the masses of small bubbles in the floating mat.
Notice the fine "hairs" on the Heterocyst cells. These are some of the other bacilli that inhabit the mat and cluster around the Heterocyst cells, probably for nitrate.