Abstract
HETEROCYSTS are the most distinctive cells of the blue-green algae, Cyanophyta, where they occur in the great majority of the filamentous species. There have been many hypotheses regarding their function, but none of these has been widely accepted and there is fairly general agreement with the conclusion of Fritsch1 that heterocysts are still “a botanical enigma”. De Pumaly2, however, has presented evidence for an essentially mechanical function of the heterocysts and he has compared them with the rhizoids of other algae. The observations reported here are in general agreement with this interpretation of heterocysts as attachment organs, but suggest that their function is distinct from that of ordinary rhizoids.
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References
Fritsch, F. E., Proc. Linn. Soc. Bot., 162, 194 (1951).
de Pumaly, A., Le Botaniste, 41, 209 (1957).
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ALLSOPP, A. Germination of Hormocysts of Scytonema javanicum and the Function of Blue-green Algal Heterocysts. Nature 220, 810 (1968). https://doi.org/10.1038/220810a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/220810a0
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