''Bacillaria'' is a

diatom A diatom (Neo-Latin ''diatoma''), "a cutting through, a severance", from el, διάτομος, diátomos, "cut in half, divided equally" from el, διατέμνω, diatémno, "to cut in twain". is any member of a large group comprising sev ...

genus in the family Bacillariaceae.

Species

*'' Bacillaria paradoxa'' Gmelin 1788 *'' Bacillaria paxillifer'' ( O.F. Müller) Hendey (1951)

Lifecycle

This genus is photosynthetic, and reproduces sexually and asexually.

Description

Cells are elongated and motile, sliding along each other, in stacked

colonies In modern parlance, a colony is a territory subject to a form of foreign rule. Though dominated by the foreign colonizers, colonies remain separate from the administration of the original country of the colonizers, the '' metropolitan state'' ...

. Cells are rectangular in girdle view (when in colonies), and lanceolate in valve view. Raphe system is slightly keeled and runs from pole to pole. Two large plate-like

chloroplast A chloroplast () is a type of membrane-bound organelle known as a plastid that conducts photosynthesis mostly in plant and algal cells. The photosynthetic pigment chlorophyll captures the energy from sunlight, converts it, and stores it in ...

s are present, one near each end of the cell. The

nucleus Nucleus ( : nuclei) is a Latin word for the seed inside a fruit. It most often refers to: *Atomic nucleus, the very dense central region of an atom *Cell nucleus, a central organelle of a eukaryotic cell, containing most of the cell's DNA Nucle ...

is located centrally. Cells are yellow-brown in colour. Fibulae are strong, and the valve surface is covered in transverse parallel structures called striae. File:Bacillaria sp movement.webm, Video of several diatoms of the genus ''Bacillaria'' moving, in real time File:Bacillaria paxillifer.tif, ''Bacillaria paxillifer''

Space station

Three diatom species were sent to the

International Space Station The International Space Station (ISS) is the largest modular space station currently in low Earth orbit. It is a multinational collaborative project involving five participating space agencies: NASA (United States), Roscosmos (Russia), JAXA ...

, together with the huge (6 mm length) diatoms of Antarctica and the exclusive colonial diatom, ''Bacillaria paradoxa''. The cells of ''Bacillaria'' moved next to each other in partial but opposite synchrony by a

microfluidic Microfluidics refers to the behavior, precise control, and manipulation of fluids that are geometrically constrained to a small scale (typically sub-millimeter) at which surface forces dominate volumetric forces. It is a multidisciplinary field tha ...

s method.

Measurements

Length (apical axis): 70 - 200 μm Width (trans-apical axis): 5 - 8 μm Height (Pervalvar axis): 5 - 10 μm Fibulae: 7 - 9 in 10 μm Striae: 20 - 21 in 10 μm

Habitat

Benthic zone The benthic zone is the ecological region at the lowest level of a body of water such as an ocean, lake, or stream, including the sediment surface and some sub-surface layers. The name comes from ancient Greek, βένθος (bénthos), meaning " ...

, marine and brackish/freshwater species, but is also commonly found in

plankton Plankton are the diverse collection of organisms found in Hydrosphere, water (or atmosphere, air) that are unable to propel themselves against a Ocean current, current (or wind). The individual organisms constituting plankton are called plankt ...

References

* Phytoplankton Encyclopedia Project {{Taxonbar, from=Q798285 Bacillariales Articles containing video clips Diatom genera