1.

0 INTRODUCTION

Cyanobacteria are aquatic and photosynthetic, that is, they live in

the water, and can manufacture their own food. Because they are bacteria,
they are quite small and usually unicellular, though they often grow in
colonies large enough to see. They have the distinction of being the oldest
known fossils, more than 3.5 billion years old, in fact! It may surprise you
then to know that the cyanobacteria are still around; they are one of the
largest and most important groups of bacteria on earth.
Cyanobacteria, formerly called "blue-green algae" are relatively
simple, primitive life forms closely related to bacteria. Typically much
larger than bacteria, they photosynthesize like algae. Depending upon the
species, cyanobacteria can occur as single cells, filaments of cells, or
colonies. Cyanobacteria contain a characteristic pigment which gives the
group their blue-green coloration. When cyanobacteria blooms begin to die
and disintegrate, this pigment may color the water a distinctive bluish
color. Cyanobacteria are found throughout the world in terrestrial,
freshwater and marine habitats, but blooms typically occur in freshwater.
The algae are the simplest members of the plant kingdom, and the
blue-green algae are the simplest of the algae. They have a considerable
and increasing economic importance; they have both beneficial and
harmful effects on human life. Blue-greens are not true algae. They have no
nucleus, the structure that encloses the DNA, and no chloroplast, the

structure that encloses the photosynthetic membranes, the structures that

are evident in photosynthetic true algae. Infact blue-greens are more akin to
bacteria which have similar biochemical and structural characteristics. The
process of nitrogen fixation and the occurrence of gas vesicles are
especially important to the success of nuisance species of blue-greens. The
blue-greens are widely distributed over land and water, often in
environments where no other vegetation can exist. Their fossils have been
identified as over three billion years old. They were probably the chief
primary producers of organic matter and the first organisms to release
elemental oxygen, O2, into the primitive atmosphere, which was until then
free from O2. Thus blue-greens were most probably responsible for a major
evolutionary transformation leading to the development of aerobic
metabolism and to the subsequent rise of higher plant and animal forms.
They are referred to in literature by various names, chief among which are
Cyanophyta, Myxophyta, Cyanochloronta, Cyanobacteria, blue-green
algae, blue-green bacteria.
Many Proterozoic oil deposits are attributed to the activity of
cyanobacteria. They are also important providers of nitrogen fertilizer in
the cultivation of rice and beans. The cyanobacteria have also been
tremendously important in shaping the course of evolution and ecological
change throughout earth's history. The oxygen atmosphere that we depend
on

was

generated

by

numerous

cyanobacteria

during

the Archaean and ProterozoicEras. Before that time, the atmosphere had a
very different chemistry, unsuitable for life as we know it today.

The other great contribution of the cyanobacteria is the origin

of plants. The chloroplast with which plants make food for themselves is
actually a cyanobacterium living within the plant's cells. Sometime in the
late Proterozoic, or in the early Cambrian, cyanobacteria began to take up
residence within certain eukaryote cells, making food for the eukaryote
host in return for a home. This event is known as endosymbiosis, and is
also the origin of the eukaryotic mitochondrion.
Unicellular and filamentous blue-greens are almost invariably
present in freshwater lakes frequently forming dense planktonic
populations or water blooms in eutrophic (nutrient rich) waters. In
temperate lakes there is a characteristic seasonal succession of the bloomforming species, due apparently to their differing responses to the physicalchemical conditions created by thermal stratification. Usually the
filamentous forms (Anabaena species, Aphanizomenon flos-aquae and
Gloeotrichia echinulata) develop first soon after the onset of stratification
in late spring or early summer, while the unicellular-colonial forms (like
Microcystis species) typically bloom in mid-summer or in autumn. The
main factors which appear to determine the development of planktonic
populations are light, temperature, pH, nutrient concentrations and the
presence of organic solutes.
Because they are photosynthetic and aquatic, cyanobacteria are
often called "blue-green algae". This name is convenient for talking about
organisms in the water that make their own food, but does not reflect any

relationship between the cyanobacteria and other organisms called algae.

Cyanobacteria are relatives of the bacteria, not eukaryotes, and it is only
the chloroplast in eukaryotic algae to which the cyanobacteria are related.

2.0 MATERIALS
2.1 Microscope slide
2.2 Coverslip
2.3 Dissecting needle
2.4 Compound microscope
2.5 Oscillatoria living culture
2.6 Disposable pipet

3.0 PROCEDURES
3.1 A small amount of culture taken outside of the laboratory.
Commonly at the drain.
3.2 Dissecting needle used to scrape some of the culture from the
surface.
3.3 A wet mount slide prepared.
3.4 The slide examined under compound microscope.
3.5 Portion of the filament draw as in the diagram 3.4.
4.0 RESULT

Cyanobacteria under microscope ( 40x10 magnification )

5.0 DISCUSSION

6.0 CONCLUSION
Not all of the Oscillatoria cells look alike and there is differentiation of certain
cells within the filament.

7.0 REFERENCES
Introduction to the Cyanobacteria: Architects of earths atmosphere. (n.d).
Retrieved

on

Jan

21st,

2013

from

http://www.google.com/search?

client=msnokia&cof=nsp&channel=s60&hl=zh-CN&ie=UTF8&q=introduction+to+cyanobacteria
Niharika Arya. (June 19, 2012). Buzzle:Eubacteria Kingdom. Retrieved on
February 13, 2013 from http://www.buzzle.com/articcles/eubacteriakingdom.html

8.0 APPENDICES

Figure 8.1 Cyanobacteria (400X)

Figure 8.2 Cyanobacteria under microscope ( 40x10 magnification )