Cyanobacteria

[Charles Krebs]

I collected some water that had collected in a shallow depression in the trunk of a downed tree. It was obvious something was "growing" in it. It turned out to be full of this cyanobacteria (along with a pretty good number of one type of rotifer).

100X S Plan Apo, Canon 350D, DIC

[Hairyduck]

Great photo Charles, I especially like the out of focus ones as a background. That DIC really is something else!

[beetleman]

Excellent picture Charles....Why the difference in the "head" cell?

[Wolfgang Bettighofer]

Charles, you really catched the elegance of cyanobacteria, probably specimen of Nostoc genus.
For Beetleman: The special cells are called "heterocysts". Cyanobacteria are able to use aerial nitrogen for protein synthesis. In the hetereocysts this conversion takes place.

Kind regards, Wolfgang

[Norman]

Hi !

I share the enthusiasm for cyanobacteria, although my knowledge is very limited. If one could call that knowledge (they are blue, aren´t they ?).
This probably owes to the fact that the insights one could take
with a ordinary microscope is limited, as the organells are too small for the visible range of radiation. Nevertheless, they are cute !




Kindest regards,


Norman

[Thomas Ashcraft]

Hi Norman,

Is that Oscillatoria in your photo? Very interesting subjects.

Thanks .

Tom

[Norman]

Hi !

Because of the transparent "wrap", i would go for Lyngbya.
Probably Lyngbya martensiana.

The pictures have to be taken with care, it was a illumination in a very narrow angle, i still play with that. In that picture the "wrap" is more visible,
the colony is suffering in a marmelade jar stuffed with some probe of the northern sea. Some diatoms in there, i have to puddle `em out.

Here is another one. In the upper part you could see some of the empty wraps:




I just found the "color curve" feature in gimp. If the thingys should look like neon bulbs, i dont know why.... ;- )

Kindest regards,

Norman[/url]

[Thomas Ashcraft]

Norman wrote:

Because of the transparent "wrap", i would go for Lyngbya.
Probably Lyngbya martensiana....................
I just found the "color curve" feature in gimp. If the thingys should look like neon bulbs, i dont know why.... ;-"


Cool. I haven't come across these organisms as yet.

Good further info and specimens at The micro*scope site:
http://starcentral.mbl.edu/microscope/p ... mageid=493
http://starcentral.mbl.edu/microscope/p ... on=Lyngbya

Tom

[rjlittlefield]

Norman,

Your pictures are interesting and we are delighted to have them posted.

However, as a matter of forum organization, we request that you start a new topic with your own pictures, rather than appending them to a topic started by someone else.

Please see the Image Posting Guidelines and this recent posting for further details.

Thanks very much,
--Rik

[Norman]

Hi !

"The safest and often the most effective approach is to open a new topic with your own pictures, and link to it from the other topic."

O.K., i will refrain from illustrated comments to other picutures.
I never came to the idea that one could be offended by "answer-pictures" in his thread, unless i read your recent posting about etiquette.
In that special case, i did not consider the picture valuable enough presenting it in an own thread. It was just a byproduct in the preparation of a presentation about photosynthesis.
So - to avoid conflicts, i will just bring up pictures in an own thread - but this will probably happen more seldom, because my microscopy-time is limited, and i do not want to bother with less interesting stuff.

Kindest regards,

Norman