Picobilifitos, new marine algae

2007/03/01 Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Biologia
• Zoologia

An international team of researchers has published in the journal Science a type of algae that so far were not identified. It has been discovered in several places of the North Atlantic and the Mediterranean. It is a component of marine phytoplankton, one of the algae in suspension in water. And within phytoplankton they have classified it as one of the smallest with life, in the group known as piccoplankton. It has been given the name of picobiliphyte, on the one hand because it is part of the piccoplankton.

The name, on the other hand, indicates another characteristic of the algae, that is, it contains ficbilian proteins. In fact, it is not uncommon for some algae to have this protein, as it helps to trap the luminous energy for chlorophyll to perform photosynthesis. The problem is that normally the fictional protein appears associated to the membrane, and on this occasion the algae have been found within the orgacle that makes the photosynthesis. This made researchers think of a new type of algae.