-
- The cell wall may be smooth with pores or
may bear spines and granules. Resistant polymers in the cell
wall allow the cells to survive the harsh dark and dry muddy
environments along the edges of lakes or ponds. Phototaxis, or
cellular movement in response to light, has been documented in
Micrasterias and many other desmids.
-
- Micrasterias is
very similar in morphology to Euastrum, so certain specimens
can be difficult
- to identify.
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- Micrasterias is
a unicellular placoderm desmid with large, solitary, flattened
semicells that are usually elaborately lobed. In some species,
the semicells are simpler and look like flattened disks. Others
have intricately lobed semicells with incisions that create a
starlike pattern of projections. The species Micrasterias
foliacea has prongs on the ends of the semicells that interlock
to form filaments. Each semicell has a large, lobed plastid with
many pyrenoids. The nucleus is located in the isthmus between
the two semicells.
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