Biology:Westella
Westella is a genus of green algae in the family Scenedesmaceae, containing the sole species Westella botryoides.[1] The species has a cosmopolitan distribution[2] and is planktonic in freshwater rivers and ponds.[1]
Westella botryoides consists of four-celled colonies (termed coenobia) up to 15 μm; these in turn may be joined to form compound colonies consisting of over a hundred cells and reaching up to 90 μm, attached to each other by the remnants of their parental cell walls.[2] The four cells are typically arranged in a square,[3] spherical but flattened when in contact with other cells. The cell walls are smooth; cells are uninucleate with a single, parietal chloroplast containing one pyrenoid.[1]
Two similar genera are Westellopsis and Coccoidesmus. Westellopsis differs in having chloroplasts without pyrenoids[2] and usually cells arranged in a line, while Coccoidesmus has cells arranged in a tetrahedral formation.[3]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; no text was provided for refs namedAlgaebase - ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Bicudo, Carlos E. M.; Menezes, Mariângela (2006). Gêneros de Algas de Águas Continentais do Brasil: chave para identificação e descrições (2 ed.). RiMa Editora. pp. 508. ISBN 857656064X.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Wang, Qinghua; Hou, Ying; Li, Yanhui; Shi, Ying; Liu, Guoxiang (2024). "Phylogenetic study on Scenedesmacae with the description of a new genus Coccoidesmus gen. nov. (Chlorophyceae, Chlorophyta) and chloroplast genome analyses". Journal of Oceanology and Limnology 42 (4): 1272–1285. doi:10.1007/s00343-023-3139-9. Bibcode: 2024JOL....42.1272W.
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