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Cyanobacteria: Planktonic Gas-Vacuolate Forms

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The Prokaryotes

Abstract

Gas vacuoles are found only in aquatic prokaryotes (Cohen-Bazire, Kunisawa, and Pfennig, 1969; Walsby, 1974) where, by virtue of their low density, they are important in providing buoyancy. Among cyanobacteria, gas vacuoles are found most commonly in the truly planktonic forms that grow freely suspended in lakes. Gas vacuoles are found in all of the waterbloom-forming cyanobacteria and are responsible for buoying them to the water surface (Reynolds and Walsby, 1975). However, there are some non-gas-vacuolate cyanobacteria that are found in the plankton. They are either attached to waterbloom-forming colonies or are small-celled or slender filamentous types with low sedimentation speeds. These nonvacuolate forms can be isolated by the methods described by Rippka, Waterbury, and Stanier (this Handbook, Chapter 8).

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Authors
  1. Anthony E. Walsby
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Bacteriology, University of California, 95616, Davis, California, USA

    Mortimer P. Starr

  2. Lehrstuhl für Mikrobiologie, Universität Bayreuth, 8580, Bayreuth, Federal Republic of Germany

    Heinz Stolp

  3. Institut für Mikrobiologie, Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität, 5300, Bonn 1, Federal Republic of Germany

    Hans G. Trüper

  4. Bacteriology Division, Centers for Disease Control, 30333, Atlanta, Georgia, USA

    Albert Balows

  5. Institut für Mikrobiologie, Universität Göttingen, 3400, Göttingen, Federal Republic of Germany

    Hans G. Schlegel

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© 1981 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Walsby, A.E. (1981). Cyanobacteria: Planktonic Gas-Vacuolate Forms. In: Starr, M.P., Stolp, H., Trüper, H.G., Balows, A., Schlegel, H.G. (eds) The Prokaryotes. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-13187-9_10

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-13187-9_10

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-662-13189-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-662-13187-9

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