Morphological and physicochemical diversity of snow algae from Alaska
Abstract Snow algae are photosynthetic microbes growing in thawing snow. They usually show various morphological cell types. The aim of this study was to carry out microscopic and spectroscopic analysis of different forms of cells of snow algae collected on glaciers in Alaska. Four different shapes...
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crspringernat:10.1038/s41598-020-76215-x 2023-05-15T16:22:37+02:00 Morphological and physicochemical diversity of snow algae from Alaska Fiołka, Marta J. Takeuchi, Nozomu Sofińska-Chmiel, Weronika Mieszawska, Sylwia Treska, Izabela 2020 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-76215-x http://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-76215-x.pdf http://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-76215-x en eng Springer Science and Business Media LLC https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 CC-BY Scientific Reports volume 10, issue 1 ISSN 2045-2322 Multidisciplinary journal-article 2020 crspringernat https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-76215-x 2022-01-04T07:07:08Z Abstract Snow algae are photosynthetic microbes growing in thawing snow. They usually show various morphological cell types. The aim of this study was to carry out microscopic and spectroscopic analysis of different forms of cells of snow algae collected on glaciers in Alaska. Four different shapes of algal cells were observed with the use of bright field LM (Light Microscopy), DIC (Differential Interference Contrast), EDF (Extended Depth Focus), fluorescence microscopy, and SEM (Scanning Electron Microscopy). The cells exhibited the strongest autofluorescence after the exposure to 365-nm excitation light, and the intensity differed among the cell types. Zygotes (cysts) showed the most intense fluorescence. Acridine orange staining revealed the acid nature of the algal cells. The use of Congo red and Calcofluor white fluorochromes indicated differences in the structure of polysaccharides in the cell wall in the individual types of algal cells. FTIR (Fourier-Transform Infrared Spectroscopy) analyses showed the presence of polysaccharides not only in the algal cells but also in the fixative solution. The presence of polysaccharides in the extracellular algal fraction was confirmed by X-ray dispersion spectroscopy (EDS), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and scanning electron microscopy imaging (SEM). The differences observed in the structure of the cell wall of the different forms of red snow algae prompt further analysis of this structure. Article in Journal/Newspaper glaciers Alaska Springer Nature (via Crossref) Scientific Reports 10 1 |
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English |
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Multidisciplinary |
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Multidisciplinary Fiołka, Marta J. Takeuchi, Nozomu Sofińska-Chmiel, Weronika Mieszawska, Sylwia Treska, Izabela Morphological and physicochemical diversity of snow algae from Alaska |
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Multidisciplinary |
description |
Abstract Snow algae are photosynthetic microbes growing in thawing snow. They usually show various morphological cell types. The aim of this study was to carry out microscopic and spectroscopic analysis of different forms of cells of snow algae collected on glaciers in Alaska. Four different shapes of algal cells were observed with the use of bright field LM (Light Microscopy), DIC (Differential Interference Contrast), EDF (Extended Depth Focus), fluorescence microscopy, and SEM (Scanning Electron Microscopy). The cells exhibited the strongest autofluorescence after the exposure to 365-nm excitation light, and the intensity differed among the cell types. Zygotes (cysts) showed the most intense fluorescence. Acridine orange staining revealed the acid nature of the algal cells. The use of Congo red and Calcofluor white fluorochromes indicated differences in the structure of polysaccharides in the cell wall in the individual types of algal cells. FTIR (Fourier-Transform Infrared Spectroscopy) analyses showed the presence of polysaccharides not only in the algal cells but also in the fixative solution. The presence of polysaccharides in the extracellular algal fraction was confirmed by X-ray dispersion spectroscopy (EDS), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and scanning electron microscopy imaging (SEM). The differences observed in the structure of the cell wall of the different forms of red snow algae prompt further analysis of this structure. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Fiołka, Marta J. Takeuchi, Nozomu Sofińska-Chmiel, Weronika Mieszawska, Sylwia Treska, Izabela |
author_facet |
Fiołka, Marta J. Takeuchi, Nozomu Sofińska-Chmiel, Weronika Mieszawska, Sylwia Treska, Izabela |
author_sort |
Fiołka, Marta J. |
title |
Morphological and physicochemical diversity of snow algae from Alaska |
title_short |
Morphological and physicochemical diversity of snow algae from Alaska |
title_full |
Morphological and physicochemical diversity of snow algae from Alaska |
title_fullStr |
Morphological and physicochemical diversity of snow algae from Alaska |
title_full_unstemmed |
Morphological and physicochemical diversity of snow algae from Alaska |
title_sort |
morphological and physicochemical diversity of snow algae from alaska |
publisher |
Springer Science and Business Media LLC |
publishDate |
2020 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-76215-x http://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-76215-x.pdf http://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-76215-x |
genre |
glaciers Alaska |
genre_facet |
glaciers Alaska |
op_source |
Scientific Reports volume 10, issue 1 ISSN 2045-2322 |
op_rights |
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-76215-x |
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Scientific Reports |
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10 |
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1766010614980804608 |