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SYNOPTIC DESCRIPTION OF THE PHYLUM CHAROPHYTA

SYNOPTIC DESCRIPTION OF THE PHYLUM CHAROPHYTA

EUKARYA> ARCHAEPLASTIDA> VIRIDIPLANTAE> STREPTOBIONTA> CHAROPHYTA
CHAROPHYTA LINKS

Introduction

Hierarchical Classification

The following description comes from Pickett-Heaps (1975), Hoshaw et al. (1990), van den Hoek et al. (1995) and Graham and Wilcox (2000)

I. SYNONYMS: Stoneworts, brittleworts.

II. NUMBER: >300 species.

III. PHYLUM CHARACTERISTICS:

  • A. Structure and Physiology
    • Cell Form: unicells, sarcinoid (text with tooltip) A kind of thallus made of three-dimensional clusters of cells. colonies, filaments, pseudoparenchymatous, some with corticated filaments (text with tooltip) A corticated filament has a large axial cell with smaller appressed branching cells so that the axis appears to be striped. .
    • Flagella: A pair of subapical flagella, covered with scales and laterally inserted, some without flagella in any stage.
    • Basal Bodies: Basal bodies perpendicular, usually associated with a multilayered structure (text with tooltip) A multilayered structure (MLS) is a microtubular array that is at the base of the basal bodies in the motile cells of certain green algae and embryophytes. The MLS seems to be part of the microtubular organizing center for the cytoskeleton of the cell. .
    • Cell Covering: A wall of cellulose; some with cellulosic scales.
    • Chloroplasts: Grass green with chlorophylls a and b, B-carotene and various xanthophylls.
    • Food Reserves: True starch that is deposited within the chloroplast in association with a pyrenoid.
    • Mitochondria: Plate-like cristae.
    • Golgi: Present.
    • Nucleus: Haploid in vegetative forms.
    • Centrioles: Absent.
    • Inclusions and Ejectile Organelles: Not present.
  • B. Mitosis, Meiosis and Life History
    • Mitosis: Variable, open to closed; phragmoplast (text with tooltip) A phragmoplast is a microtubular array that is oriented parallel to the orientation of the spindle following mitosis. Thus it can be viewed as a persistent spindle. The phragmoplast involved in cytokinesis by the formation of a cell plate (a new cell wall by centrifugal formation). (in most); cytokinesis by cell plate (text with tooltip) A cell plate is the type of cell wall formation that occurs in a centrifugal fashion. This occurs in some green algae, all embryophytes, and some of the brown algae. formation.
    • Meiosis: Present.
    • Sexual Reproduction and Life History: Isogamy to oogamy. Some of the charophytes grow from a protonema (text with tooltip) A protonema is the initial filamentous (sometimes thalloid) gametophyte that grows from the spore of charophytes, and non-vascular embryophytes. .
  • C. Ecology: Mainly found in fresh water.
LITERATURE CITED

Baldauf, S. L. and J. D. Palmer. 1990. Evolutionary transfer of the chloroplast tufA gene to the nucleus. Nature. 344: 262-265.

Bold, H. C. and M. J. Wynne. 1985. Introduction to the Algae. 2nd Edition. Prentice-Hall, Inc. Englewood Cliffs. NJ.

Cavalier-Smith, T. 1993c. The origin, losses and gains of chloroplasts. In: Lewin, R. A., ed. Origins of plastids. Chapmann and Hall, New York and London. Pp. 291–348.

Floyd, G. L., K. D. Stewart, and K. R. Mattox. 1972b. Cellular organization, mitosis, and cytokinesis in the ulotrichalean alga, Klebshormidium. Journal of Phycology. 8: 170-184.

Graham, L. E. 1985. The origin of the life cycle of land plants. American Scientist 73: 178-186.

Graham, L. E. 1990. Charophyceae (Orders Chlorokybales, Klebsormidiales, Coleochaetales). In: Margulis, L., J.O. Corliss, M. Melkonian, and D.J. Chapman, eds. 1990. Handbook of the Protoctista; the structure, cultivation, habits and life histories of the eukaryotic microorganisms and their descendants exclusive of animals, plants and fungi. Jones and Bartlett Publishers. Boston. pp. 636-640.

Graham, L. E., and L. W. Wilcox. 2000. Algae. Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ.

Hoshaw, R. W., R. M. McCourt, and J. C. Wang. 1990. Conjugaphyta. In: Margulis, L., J.O. Corliss, M. Melkonian, and D.J. Chapman, eds. 1990. Handbook of the Protoctista; the structure, cultivation, habits and life histories of the eukaryotic microorganisms and their descendants exclusive of animals, plants and fungi. Jones and Bartlett Publishers. Boston. pp. 119-133.

Lewis, L. A. and R. M. McCourt. 2004. Green algae and the origin of land plants. American Journal of Botany. 91(10): 1535-1556.

Lokhorst, G. M., H. J. Sluiman, and W. Star. 1988. The ultrastructure of mitosis and cytokinesis in the sarcinoid Chlorokybus atmophyticus (Chlorophyta, Charophyceae) revealed by rapid freeze fixation and freeze substitution. Journal of Phycology. 24: 237-248.

Marchant, H.J., J.D. Pickett-Heapes, and K. Jacobs. 1973. An ultrastructural study of zoosporogenesis and the mature zoospore of Klebshormidium flaccidum. Cytobios. 8:95-107.

Margulis, L. and K. Schwartz. 1988. Five kingdoms, an illustrated guide to the phyla of life on earth. 2nd Edition. W.H. Freeman and Co. New York.

Margulis, L. and K. Schwartz. 1998. Five kingdoms, an illustrated guide to the phyla of life on earth. 3rd Edition. W. H. Freeman and Company. New York.

Marin, B. and M. Melkonian. 1999. Mesostigmatophyceae, a new class of streptophyte green algae revealed by SSU rRNA sequence comparisons. Protist. 150: 399-417.

Mattox, K. R. and K. D. Stewart. 1984. Classification of the green algae: a concept based on comparative cytology. In: Irvine, D. E. G. and D. M. John, eds. Systematics of the Green Algae. Academic Press. London. pp. 29-72.

Pickett-Heaps, J. D. 1975. Green Algae: Structure, Reproduction and Evolution in Selected Genera. Sinauer Associates, Inc. Sunderland, Massachusetts.

Pickett-Heaps, J. D. and H. J. Marchant. 1972. The phylogeny of the green algae: a new proposal. Cytobios. 6:255-264.

Smith, G. M. 1950. The fresh-water algae of the United States. McGraw-Hill Book Co. New York.
Surek, B., U. Beemelmanns, M. Melkonian, and D. Bhattacharya. 1994. Ribosomal RNA sequence comparisons demonstrate an evolutionary relationship between Zygnematales and Charophytes. Pl. Syst. Evol., 191: 171-81.

Sym, S. D. and R. N. Pienaar. 1993. The Class Praesinophyceae. In: F. E. Round and D. J. Chapman, eds. Progress in Phycological Research. 9: 281-376.

Van den Hoek, C., D. G. Mann, and H. M. Jahns. 1995. Algae, An Introduction to Phycology. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge.
By Jack R. Holt. Last revised: 03/19/2013
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