Habitat and Ecological Observations on Gymnodinium Acidotum Nygaard, a Colorless Dinoflagellate Phagocytizing Blue-Green Cryptophytes
Date of Graduation
Summer 1990
Degree
Master of Science in Biology
Department
Biology
Committee Chair
Russell Rhodes
Abstract
A bloom of Gymnodinium acidotum, a rare dinoflagellate harboring a cryptomonad endosymbiont, was implicated in a fish kill in open waters of Stockton Lake, MO. In 1987. Collections from 1989 have shown that G. acidotum is normally associated with Spirogyra sp. in the benthos of shallow marshy areas frequented by waterfowl. Morphology and pigmentation vary in the natural environment according to water chemistry and the presence of cryptophytes. A short colorless phase, observed in vitro, consists of mononucleate cells that exhibit a phototactic circadian rhythm. Observations of colorless cells of G. acidotum cultured with Chroomonas sp. indicate that phagocytotic uptake, a short retention period, and digestion of the cryptophyte occurs. The evolutionary status of the G. acidotum/cryptophyte relationship is discussed in the context of the Serial Endosymbiosis Theory of organelle evolution.
Subject Categories
Biology
Copyright
© Stephen D Fields
Recommended Citation
Fields, Stephen D., "Habitat and Ecological Observations on Gymnodinium Acidotum Nygaard, a Colorless Dinoflagellate Phagocytizing Blue-Green Cryptophytes" (1990). MSU Graduate Theses. 161.
https://bearworks.missouristate.edu/theses/161
Dissertation/Thesis
