Classification

Higher order taxa:

Eukaryota, stramenopiles

Classes:
Diatoms (Bacillariophyta), Golden-brown algae (Chrysophyceae), Yellow-green algae (Xanthophyceae)

Description and Significance

Chrysophyta is a phylum of unicellular marine or freshwater protists. Members of this phylum include the diatoms (class Bacillariophyta), golden/golden-brown algae (class Chrysophyceae), and yellow-green algae (class Xanthophyceae). Species' characteristics are varied: some are freeswimming unicells, while others are filamentous or colonial. Many chysophtyes are photosynthetic, which led to their initial categorization as plants. Actually, however, they are protist "secondary endosymbionts." That is, their evolutionary history included ingestion of an algae that already possessed a chloroplast descendent of a photosynthetic bacterium. The ingested algae (with its chloroplast) ultimately degenerated as an obligate organelle of the protist cell.

Genome Structure
Two Chrysophyta mitochondrial genomes have been sequenced (see them here).

Cell Structure and Metabolism

Diatoms Image from Texas Parks and Wildlife

Golden alga Image from Texas Parks and Wildlife. Because Chrysophyta encompasses so many species, there is no common cell structure. Some cell walls are comprised mainly of cellulose, with large amounts of silica, while some are amoeboid with no cell walls. If flagella are present, there may be one or two; if there are two they may or may not be similar. Diatoms are capable of reproducing sexually, but the chrysophytes commonly reproduce through cell division. Members of Chrysophyta tend to be photosynthetic, but some, especially the golden algae, become heterotrophic when there is inadequate light or if dissolved food is plentiful.

Ecology

Centric fossile diatom frustule. Image from Dennis Kunkel Microscopy at www.DennisKunkel.com. Members of Chrysophyta are found in marine and freshwater environments. The diatoms and the golden-brown algae are the most ecologically significant; they make up part of the plankton and nanoplankton that are the foundation of the aquatic food chain. Distribution of these organisms depend on the class to which they belong. .Chrysophyta - mostly freshwater eukaryotic algae having the chlorophyll masked by brown or yellow pigment; yellow-green and golden-brown algae and diatoms: Xanthophyceae, Chrysophyceae, Bacillariophyceae; some classification systems superseded or subsumed by Heterokontophyta division Chrysophyta kingdom Protoctista, Protoctista - in most modern classifications, replacement for the Protista; includes: Protozoa; Euglenophyta; Chlorophyta; Cryptophyta; Heterokontophyta; Rhodophyta;

unicellular protists and their descendant multicellular organisms: regarded as distinct from plants and animals golden algae - algae having the pigments chlorophyll and carotene and xanthophyll yellow-green algae - any alga of the division Chrysophyta with its chlorophyll masked by yellow pigment Chrysophyceae, class Chrysophyceae, class Heterokontae, Heterokontae - all the yellow-green algae having flagella of unequal length class Xanthophyceae, Xanthophyceae - yellow-green algae Bacillariophyceae, class Bacillariophyceae, class Diatomophyceae, Diatomophyceae - marine and freshwater eukaryotic algae: diatoms Heterotrichales, order Heterotrichales - yellow-green algae with simple or branching filaments; comprising the single family Tribonemaceae division - (biology) a group of organisms forming a subdivision of a larger category

Introduction to the Chrysophyta

Golden Algae

Chrysophytes, or golden algae, are common microscopic chromists in fresh water. Some species are colorless, but the vast majority are photosynthetic. As such, they are particularly important in lakes, where they may be the primary source of food for zooplankton. They are not considered truly autotrophic by some biologists because nearly all chrysophytes become facultatively heterotrophic in the absence of adequate light, or in the presence of plentiful dissolved food. When this occurs, the chrysoplast atrophies and the alga may turn predator, feeding on bacteria or diatoms.

There are more than a thousand described species of golden algae, most of them free-swimming and unicellular, but there are filamentous and colonial forms. Other chrysophytes may spend part of their life as amoeboid cells. At the left and center of the above illustration is Dinobryon, a freshwater genus in which the individual cells are surrounded by vase-shaped loricae, composed of chitin fibrils and other polysaccharides. The colonies grow as branched or unbranched chains. A spherical colonial form, Synura, is on the right; the surfaces of these cells are covered by silica scales. Species which produce siliceous coverings may have bristles or scales with quite complex structure. Some researchers group the chrysophytes with silica scales in a separate taxon, the Synurophyceae. The oldest known chrysophytes are from calcareous and siliceous deposits of Cretaceous age, but they reached their greatest diversity in the Miocene. The group actually has a fairly complete fossil record, because most freshwater chrysomonads secrete resting cysts of silica, which may be abundant in certain rocks -- in some Paleocene deposits, chrysophyte cysts outnumber the diatoms! The fossils of chrysophytes, like those of diatoms and coccolithophorids, are often used as paleoecological indicators to reconstruct ancient environments. It is now generally believed that the Chrysophyta is a heterogeneous group, probably paraphyletic. Several groups formerly included here have been given separate recognition, such as the Raphidiophyceae, Eumastigophyceae, Xanthophyceae, Silicoflagellata, Sarcinochrysophyceae, and others. However, there is as yet no general consensus as to how these groups are related to each other or to the other chromist groups.