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Chlorophyta
Chlorophyta
The chlorophytes includes a lineage of about 4,000 species of aquatic green algae. They are a sister group to the land plants, and their green algae relatives. The chlorophytes have unicellular, colonial, and multicellular representatives. Most are free-living in water, but some form symbioses with lichens, and can survive as terrestrial algae.
Diversity
Diversity
The chlorophytes are represented by approximately 11 classes:
- Chlorodendrophyceae
- Chlorophyceae
See below
- Chloropicophyceae
- Mamiellophyceae
Ostreococcus is a unicellular green alga roughly 1 μm in size and one of the smallest eukaryotes on Earth
This family consists of many algae that constitute the marine picoplankton in the oceans
- Nephrophyceae
- Palmophyllophyceae
- Pedinophyceae
- Picocystophyceae
- Pyramimonadophyceae
- Trebouxiophyceae
Trebouxia and Chlorella are non-flagellated, unicellular members of this class, sometimes living as endosymbionts of lichens and even animals (e.g., Hydra viridissima)
- Ulvophyceae
See below
Above: Gulbrandsen et al., 2021, Figure 1
Chlorophyceae
Chlorophyceae
e.g. Chlamydomonas, Volvox, Pediastrum
Live in mostly freshwater or terrestrial algae
Unicells, colonies, some filaments in this group
Produce a phycoplast during cell division; a structure that forms parallel to cytokinesis
Above: the colonial chlorophycean algae, Volvox, which grows as a colonial organism
Ulvophyceae
Ulvophyceae
e.g. Ulva, Codium, Aegagropila, Derbesia, Chaetomorpha, etc.
Live in mostly marine habits
Siphonous and thalloid growth
During telophase (mitosis), they go through furrowing cell division
Valonia ventricosa
Valonia ventricosa
Called the bubble alga, is a hollow green ball that can grow up to 5 cm in diameter.
It is one of the largest unicellular organisms on Earth
Acetabularia sp.
Acetabularia sp.
Called the mermaid cup, it is a complex, cup-like alga that can grow up to 10 cm in length.
This is another extremely large (siphonous) unicellular organism
Caulerpa sp.
Caulerpa sp.
This alga is fern-like in appearance and each "frond" can grow up to 60 cm in length.
This is probably the largest unicellular (siphonous) organisms
Above: Valonia, an ulvophycean alga and one of the largest single cells on Earth
Above: an ulvophycean alga, Acetabularia
Above: Caulerpa, a large siphonous fern-like ulvophycean alga
Below: Ulva, the thalloid sea lettuce
Above: the chlorophycean alga Chlamydomonas
Above: "moss balls" or marimo are clusters of the filamentous ulvophyte, Aegagropila
Additional Resources
Additional Resources
Unraveling Caulerpa’s Growth Mysteries: Insights Into A Single-Cell Algae’s Development (Science Blog 24Nov2023)
Algae injected into animals produce oxygen in the brain (Ozugur et al. 2021)
Single-Celled Algae Evolve Into a Multicellular Organism (Science Alert, 23 Feb 2019)
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