Concept

Dictyochales

Dictyochales (Silicoflagellates, or Dictyochophyceae sensu stricto) are a small group of unicellular heterokont algae, found in marine environments. In one stage of their life cycle, they produce a siliceous skeleton, composed of a network of bars and spikes arranged to form an internal basket. These form a small component of marine sediments, and are known as microfossils from as far back as the early Cretaceous. The algae in the Dictyochophyceae have been previously classified in the Chrysophyceae. There is one living genus, Dictyocha, with two commonly recognised species. There are also several extinct genera, but their classification is difficult, since skeletons may show diverse forms within each living species. Dictyocha has one golden-brown chloroplast and a long flagellum extended into a wing-like shape. The skeleton-bearing stage is uninucleate, with many microtubule-supported projections, and there are also uninucleate and micronucleate stages that do not produce skeletons, but how they relate to each other is poorly understood. The cell structure places the silicoflagellates in a group called the axodines. They are usually treated as an order, called the Dictyochales by botanists and the Silicoflagellida by zoologists. "Dictyochophyceae" and "silicoflagellates" are sometimes equated.

About this result
This page is automatically generated and may contain information that is not correct, complete, up-to-date, or relevant to your search query. The same applies to every other page on this website. Please make sure to verify the information with EPFL's official sources.

Graph Chatbot

Chat with Graph Search

Ask any question about EPFL courses, lectures, exercises, research, news, etc. or try the example questions below.

DISCLAIMER: The Graph Chatbot is not programmed to provide explicit or categorical answers to your questions. Rather, it transforms your questions into API requests that are distributed across the various IT services officially administered by EPFL. Its purpose is solely to collect and recommend relevant references to content that you can explore to help you answer your questions.