Curt Pueschel

• Binghamton University

A descriptive model of calcification in the coralline red algae is integral to understanding their contributions to marine geochemistry, the responses of seascapes to global change, and their own evolution and ecology. Yet, the development of a holistic model of this process has so far been limited by the intrinsic challenge of assembling multiple...

Specimens of Hildenbrandia bearing conceptacles that contained small, bead-shaped reproductive cells, only 3–4 µm wide, features diagnostic of Hildenbrandia sanjuanensis, were collected from the high intertidal zone at the type locality of the species. Examination of conceptacle contents by transmission electron microscopy was used to detail the di...

For more than eighty years, the accepted view of the origin of secondary pit connections in coralline red algae has been that a narrow channel of direct fusion forms between adjacent intercalary meristematic cells and a pit plug is subsequently deposited within the fusion channel; no cell or nuclear division is involved. Such a mechanism contrasts...

Light microscopy and transmission electron microscopy were used to examine the developmentally important but little studied process of red algal vegetative cell fusion. Cell fusions were pervasive in the coralline alga Neopolyporolithon reclinatum; aggregates composed of as many as 15 laterally fused perithallial cells were reconstructed from parad...

To better understand the dynamics of the coralline algal thallus surface, scanning and transmission electron microscopy were used to examine the structure and development of epithallial cells and trichocyte initials in three species of Amphiroa. Epithallial cells possessed several distinctive organic wall layers. A densely fibrillar, moderately ele...

The morphology, anatomical and cellular localisation, abundance, and taxonomic distribution of calcium oxalate deposits in algae are described. Comparisons are drawn to the same features of calcium oxalate crystals in embryophytes. A review of the early history of work on these mineral deposits in algae reveals a wider distribution of taxa and grea...

Rhodophyta, or red algae, comprises a monophyletic lineage within Archaeplastida that includes glaucophyte algae and green algae plus land plants. Rhodophyta has a long fossil history with evidence of Bangia-like species in ca. 1.2 billion-year-old deposits. Red algal morphology varies from unicellular, filamentous, to multicellular thalloid forms,...

Rhodophyta, or red algae, comprises a monophyletic lineage within Archaeplastida that includes glaucophyte algae and green algae plus land plants. Rhodophyta has a long fossil history with evidence of Bangia-like species in ca. 1.2 billion-year-old deposits. Red algal morphology varies from unicellular, filamentous, to multicellular thalloid forms,...

The descriptions of galls, or tumors, in red algae have been sparse. Ktzing (1865) observed possible galls of Bostrychia but only presented a drawing. Intensive culture observations of hundreds of specimens of the genus Bostrychia over many years have revealed that galls appeared in only a small subset of our unialgal cultures of B. kelanensis, Bos...

Living cells of field-collected specimens of the giant-celled marine green alga Chaetomorpha coliformis (Montagne) Kutzing were found to have birefringent cellular inclusions whose composition was determined to be calcium oxalate on the basis of their reactions to diagnostic chemical solubility tests and the Yasue cytochemical staining procedure. T...

Rod-shaped particles, approximately 30 nm in width and 1000 nm or more in length, were found in cells of the red alga Audouinella saviana (Meneghini) Woelkerling. Parallel in orientation and hexagonally packed, these inclusions were located within dilated cisternae of rough endoplasmic reticulum. The rods consisted of an electron-dense central elem...

Ultrastructural examination of a green-pigmented mutant of the red alga Palmaria palmata (L.) O. Kuntze revealed unusual features of the chloroplasts. Encircling peripheral thylakoids, characteristic of the wild-type plastids and florideophyte plastids generally, were lacking. Parallel evenly spaced thylakoids occurred in groups, leaving large volu...

Specimens of Palmaria mollis (Setchell and Gardner) van der Meer and Bird collected from Vancouver Island, Canada, were found to harbour a pathogenic fungal parasite. When infected fronds were put into culture, the algal thallus became completely covered with small white lesions. These were most concentrated in young tissue and soon killed the apic...

Invasion of Palmaria mollis by the marine oomycete Petersenia palmariae begins with penetration of the cell wall and then the lumen of an outer cortex cell. The fungus in its vegetative phase lacks a wall but is separated from the host cytoplasm by the invaginated plasmalemmaof the host cell. By promoting fusion of host cells or by the dissolution...

We provide molecular phylogenetic evidence that the obscure genera Palmophyllum Kütz. and Verdigellas D. L. Ballant. et J. N. Norris form a distinct and early diverging lineage of green algae. These palmelloid seaweeds generally persist in deep waters, where grazing pressure and competition for space are reduced. Their distinctness warrants recogni...

The structure of the diminutive endo/epiphytic red alga Pihiella liagoraciphila was examined by light and transmission electron microscopy. The structure of the pit plugs consisted of a plug core with cap membranes but no cap layers, thus supporting the independence of this species from the Ahnfeltiales, to which it is most closely related in a mol...

Ramicrusta textilis sp. nov. (Peyssonneliaceae, Gigartinales) is described from shallow, nearshore waters of Jamaica (Caribbean Sea). The reddish-gold to brown thalli grow on bedrock and dead coral heads, but they may also overgrow living corals. Thallus morphology is highly variable; a single confluent thallus may include smooth, prostrate crustos...

The association of the limpet Tectura testudinalis (Müller 1776) and the crustose coralline red alga Clathromorphum circumscriptum (Strömfelt) Foslie (Melobesioideae) is considered a species-specific mutualism between grazer and prey. Anatomical features of C. circumscriptum, especially those associated with epithallial cells, have been viewed as b...

The tetrasporangial initial in Palmaria palmata (L.) O. Kuntze (formerly Rhodymenia palmata (L.) Greville) arises from a cortex cell which enlarges and deposits a protein-rich wall layer. This cell undergoes mitosis to form a tetrasporocyte and a stalk cell. Synaptonemal complexes are formed in the sporocyte nucleus while in the cytoplasm floridean...

Ahnfeltia plicata (Hudson) Fries, the type species of Ahnfeltia Fries, is currently assigned to the Phyllophoraceae (Gigartinales). Several morphological and biochemical characters distance A. plicata from the Phyllophoraceae but, because sexual reproduction has never been demonstrated, an alternative placement has not been possible. A. plicata now...

Light microscopic study of the giant-celled, marine green alga Callipsygma wilsonis J. Agardh (Udoteaceae, Bryopsidales) revealed numerous birefringent crystalline inclusions in the terminal segments of the assimilatory axes. The inclusions were thin plates with a triangular shape in face view, a base up to 75 μm in length, and a height that was on...

Birefringent polyhedral crystals up to 8 mm on a side were found both within cells and on the thallus surfaces of several genetically distinct isolates of the red alga Spyridia filamentosa (Wulfen) Harvey. Diagnostic chemical solubility tests and silver nitrate–dithiooxamide staining identified the crystals as calcium oxalate. Calcium oxalate cryst...

A survey of 18 species of the Ceramiales grown in culture revealed calcium oxalate crystals in Antithamnion antillanum Børgesen, A. callocladum Itono, and A. sparsum Tokida. The needle-shaped crystals were present within the cytoplasm of cells of the indeterminate axes but not in cells of the determinate lateral branches. No such crystals were pres...

The current general model of the organization of a fully developed rhodophycean pit plug includes a cap membrane associated with each end of the plug. Continuity of the plasmalemma and cap membrane results in the plug core being extracellular. However, routine ultrastructural methods have not convincingly demonstrated cap membranes in the Bangiales...

A terrestrial chlorophyte, Chlorococcum sp., was isolated from the stone walls of Miruksazi stupa, which is a national treasure of Korea. The alga was one of the dominant organisms contributing to biodeterioration of the monument and it grew extensively on the walls of the inner room of the stupa, which had been sealed for more than 5 yr before we...

Transmission electron microscopic study of Lithophyllum neoatalayense Masaki demonstrated that this alga used two mechanisms by which it sloughed cells from its surface. Epithallial filaments, produced by a layer of underlying initial cells, were two to four cells long. Terminal epithallial cells, those closest to the thallus surface, underwent sen...

Epithallial cells of the coralline red algae are characterized by structural specializations that include deep invaginations of the distal cell surface, and by a unique developmental pattern that culminates in senescence, shedding and replacement of the cells. Combined scanning and transmission electron microscopic study of epithallial cell differe...

Heribaudiella fluviatilis (Aresch.) Sved. is a freshwater brown alga distributed in Europe and Japan, but known only from one questionable record in eastern North America. It is now reported as present in western Canada, approximately 250 km from any marine water. Ultrastructural features prove its phaeophycean character. Each cell contains several...

The fine structure of pit plugs in 90 species of red algae was examined, bringing the total number of species in the continuing survey to 153. The organization of plug caps was confirmed to be a stable, predictable trait within thalli, between generations in heteromorphic life histories, and within the presently recognized orders, with one exceptio...

Four species of the Batrachospermales were examined by transmission electron microscopy to determine whether or not cap membranes, a typical structural component of pit plugs in several orders of red algae, were present. Routine specimen preservation methods used in past studies led to contradictory reports, so Batrachospermum keratophytum Bory, B....

Phosphatic sediments of the Late Neoproterozoic (ca. 600 million years old [Myr]) Doushantuo Formation at Weng'an, South China, contain fossils of multicellular algae preserved in anatomical detail. As revealed by light microscopy and scanning electron microscopy, these fossils include both simple pseudoparenchymatous thalli with apical growth but...

Epithallial cells of the coralline red algae are characterized by unusual structural specialization, which include deep invaginations of the distal cell surface, and by unique development, which culminates in senescence, shedding, and replacement of the cells. Electron microscopic study of epithelial cell differentiation in morphologically and taxo...

Representatives of the freshwater red algal family Thoreaceae were studied to resolve their taxonomic and phylogenetic status. Three specimens of Nemalionopsis and five collections of Thorea were examined for pit plug ultrastructure and analyzed for the sequences of the genes coding for the large subunit of RUBISCO (rbcL) and the small subunit of r...

Transmission electron microscopy was used to study the ultrastructure of epithallial, subepithallial, and initial cells in three species of Lithothamnion: L. glaciale, L. corallioides, and L. sonderi, and four species of Phymatolithon: P. laevigatum, P. purpureum, P. lenormandii, and P. calcareum (Corallinaceae. subfamily Melobesioideae). One of th...

Thallus surface features associated with epithallial cells and trichocytes provide systematic characters useful for distinguishing some members of the tribes Janieae and Corallineae (Corallinales, Rhodophyta). Electron microscopical study of representatives of the genera Corallina, Jania, Haliptilon, and Cheilosporum suggests an anatomical basis fo...

Trichocyte complexes of Jania adhaerens (Corallinales, Rhodophyta) were studied by scanning and transmission electron microscopy. The trichocyte complex is composed of trichocytes (hair cells), their associated initial cells, and a previously unknown ephemeral cell, here termed the crown cell. The crown cell, which is part of the epithallial layer,...

Vegetative cells of the freshwater green alga Spirogyra hatillensis Transeau contain numerous cruciate inclusions that are up to 34 μm long. A crystalline nature was shown by birefringence in polarized light. Rather than occurring free in the large central vacuole, these inclusions were associated with cytoplasmic strands that suspended the nucleus...

Proteinaceous cytoplasmic inclusions with characteristic anatomical localization patterns are common in marine algae, but the function of these cell structures has not been demonstrated. Thalli of the endemic Arctic kelp Laminaria solidungula J. Agardh, cultured under N-replete conditions and examined by light and electron microscopy, were found to...

Specimens of an unidentified species of the freshwater green alga Spirogyra were found to have abundant cruciate cellular inclusions up to 34 micrometers long. A crystalline nature was shown by birefringence in polarized light. Despite their large size and complex shape, these inclusions did not occur free in the large central vacuole. Instead, the...

Small subunit rDNA sequencing and transmission electron microscopy were performed to clarify the ordinal affinities of Audouinella macrospora (Wood) Sheath et Burkholder isolates 3394, 3395, and 3603, as well as Chantransia sp. isolate 3585. Culture 3603 is known to produce thalli of Batrachospermum -like morphology under certain culture conditions...

Ultrastructural examination of specimens of Antithamnion kylinii Gardner preserved by freeze-substitution revealed the presence of abundant microtubules and actin microfilaments. By contrast, and as is typical of red algae, neither cytoskeletal component was observed in specimens prepared by conventional chemical fixation. Microtubules were especia...

The palmelloid green alga Verdigellas peltata D.L. Ballantine et J.N. Norris was collected from depths of 70 to 110 meters in the Bahamas and studied by light microscopy and transmission electron microscopy. Most of the cell was filled by a cup-shaped chloroplast that contained scattered starch grains but no pyrenoid. Some chloroplasts had clusters...

Crustose coralline algae cover a substantial fraction of surfaces on the shallow parts of coral reefs. The shedding of surface layers of cells by three common species was studied using light and electron microscopy. All three species examined shed epithallial cells in one of two ways: synchronous epithallial shedding involving the simultaneous shed...

Cytoplasmic inclusions without bounding membranes were present in initial cells and epithallial cells of the crustose coralline alga Clathromorphum loculosum. Chloramine-T Schiff's and aniline blue-black procedures for selective staining of proteins gave positive reactions to the inclusions. Unusual layered structures were present in initial cells...

Transmission electron microscopy was used to examine the structure and development of epithallial cells in Corallina officinalis Linnaeus (Corallinoideae), a geniculate alga with an epithallus one functional cell layer thick, and Lithophyllum impression Foslie (Lithophylloideae), a nongeniculate alga with multicellular epithallial filaments. Lithop...

Summary The red alga,Antithamnion kylinii Gardner, was found to have needle-shaped inclusions about 10 µm long and less than 0.4 µm thick. They ranged in abundance from one or a few in young cells to hundreds in fully enlarged cells. Under polarized light, the inclusions were birefringent, indicating crystallinity. Solubility tests suggested that t...

Cellular inclusions up to 18 μm long, with a crystalline outline and periodic substructure, were found in axial filaments of Haplogloia kuckuckii Kylin. Lateral assimilatory filaments did not contain inclusions. Light-microscopic cytochemical tests indicated that the crystals were proteinaceous. Protein-staining procedures, aniline blue-black and c...

Light and electron microscopy demonstrated the presence of crystalline cellular inclusions in specimens of 18 species of red algae distributed among 11 orders. Structures, crystalline in outline or in substructure, were membrane-bounded or free in the cytoplasm. Crystals in the central vacuole may result from relocation after disruption of the vacu...

The fine structure of the recently described red algaRhodogorgon carriebowensis J. Norris et Bucher was studied by light microscopy and scanning and transmission electron microscopy to aid in the ordinal placement of this unusual alga. Most significant in this context were findings that pit plugs had two-layered plug caps, the outer layer of which...

Summary Calcification inRhodogorgon carriebowensis J. Norris et Bucher was associated with a particular cell type in the cortex. Calciferous cells were 4–6 times the length of cortical assimilatory cells. The distal two-thirds of the calcifying cell was invested with a thick wall that stained with periodic acid Schiff. Thick fibrils formed a reticu...

Ultrastructural and cytochemical study of pit plugs in Clathromorphum circumscriptum revealed two distinctive features. The large outer cap layer of the pit plugs was irregular in morphology and often deeply lobed. Some plug caps were poorly consolidated, consisting of disjunct pieces that were not in contact with the rest of the pit plug. As in ot...

A comparative cytochemical study of the outer cap layer of pit plugs in five orders of red algae (Rhodophyta) was performed in order to address the question of homology of this systematically important feature. Two or more representatives of the Acrochaetiales, Nemaliales, Palmariales, Batrachospermales, and Corallinales were examined. Outer caps l...

A comparative cytochemical study of the outer cap layer of pit plugs in five orders of red algae (Rhodophyta) was performed in order to address the question of homology of this systematically important feature. Two or more representatives of the Acrochaetiales, Nemaliales, Palmariales, Batrachospermales, and Corallinales were examined. Outer caps l...

The chemical composition of pit plugs in the articulated coralline red alga Bossiella californica (Decaisne) Silva (Rhodophyta) was investigated using light and electron microscopic staining methods, enzyme digestion, and FITC-labelled lectin probes. Light microscopic cytochemical techniques indicated that the outer cap layer was composed of glycop...

Light and electron microscope studies of a specimen of Hildenbrandia rubra revealed two unusual features not found in other collections. A large portion of the crust surface was necrotic. The depth of the affected areas varied, but in some places it was great enough to remove conceptacles. Beneath the zone of dead cells, regeneration was indicated...

Scanning electron microscopic study demonstrates an abundance of secondary pit connections in three species of Hildenbrandia: H. crouanii, H. occidentalis and H. rubra. Usually each cylindrical cell in a vertical file is surrounded laterally by about six files of nonkindred cells. Secondary pit connections are established between most or all of the...

The current general model of the organization of a fully developed rhodophycean pit plug includes a cap membrane associated with each end of the plug. Continuity of the plasmalemma and cap membrane results in the plug core being extracellular. However, routine ultrastructural methods have not convincingly demonstrated cap membranes in the Bangiales...

The fine structure of released, attached, and germinating carpospores of Porphyra variegata (Kjellm.) Hus is described. Adhesive vesicles, formed during sporogenesis and discharged upon settling of the spore, produced a layer of adhesive mucilage around the spore and filled a deep imagination on the spore's ventral side. The mucilage layer was punc...

Sediments from FeSO4 · 7H2O solutions oxidized by resting cell suspensions of Thiobacillus ferrooxidans in the absence of additional monovalent cations consisted of amorphous hydrated Fe(III) sulfate possessing reticular or filamentous microstructure. In the presence of additional sulfate supplied as Li2SO4, MgSO4, (CH3NH3)2SO4, or (CH3NH3)HSO4 at...

Ultrastructural techniques were used to investigate tetrasporangial development and conceptacle contents of Hildenbrandia occidentalis Setch. and H. rubra (Sommerf.) Menegh. = H. prototypus Nardo. Tetrasporocytes are formed by transformation of vegetative cells. A distinctive tetrasporangial wall is deposited around the tetrasporocyte. Cleavage of...

The fine structure of pit plugs was examined in 63 species of red algae representing 34 families. The number of plug cap layers was found to be a taxonomically reliable character when tested against a recent revision of the Rhodymeniales which established the order Palmariales. In a broader survey involving all the orders of red algae possessing pi...

The fine structure of pit plugs was examined in 63 species of red algae representing 34 families. The number of plug cap layers was found to be a taxonomically reliable character when tested against a recent revision of the Rhodymeniales which established the order Palmariales. In a broader survey involving all the orders of red algae possessing pi...

Chloroplasts in reproductive blades of the marine red alga Constaninea subulifera contained crystalline aggregations of phytoferritin. The native electron density of the particles' iron component was demonstrated in unstained sections, sections deosmified with periodic acid, and specimens prepared without osmium postfixation. Year-old reproductive...

Microbodies, usually spherical and about 0.2 m in diameter, were found to be associated with prophase nuclei in vegetative cells and meiocytes of the red algaPalmaria palmata. Nucleus-associated microbodies in meiocytes were numerous, but they did not react to the DAB cytochemical test for catalase and peroxidase activity. Microbodies not associate...

The cytochemical properties of pit plugs of hoth bangiophycean and florideophycean red algae were studied using light and electron microscopic techniques. The two major structural components of the plugs, the core and caps, differ in composition. The plug core was stained by several procedures for protein localization. Polysaccharide and lipid stai...

Ultrastructural examination of Palmaria palmala revealed the presence of plasmalemmal extensions which resemble plasmalemmavilli reported for several other red algae. To evaluate the authenticity of plasmalemmavilli in Palmaria comparisons were made between specimens prepared by different fixation procedures for thin-section electron microscopy. It...

Large inclusions in the outer cortex cells of the marine red alga Palmaria palmata (= Rhodymenia palmata) are concluded to be lipid bodies based on their reaction to osmium and Sudan B. Study by thin-section electron microscopy reveals that many such bodies are surrounded by an apparent reticulum of bifurcating membranes. Freeze etching indicates t...

Freeze-etch studies indicate that the fully-formed pit plug ofPalmaria palmata consists of a homogeneous plug core, a pair of plug caps, and associated membranes. A single cap membrane separates the two layers of each plug cap and is the only membrane found between the cytoplasm and the plug core. Due to the apparent junction of the plasmalemma and...

Thesis (M.S.)--Cornell University, 1975. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 65-75).