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Periphyton (microbiome) of filamentous algae studied by polarization microscopy, aided also by some contrasting optical methods

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Abstract

Polarization microscopy, possibly together with some contrast techniques (dark field and color phase contrast), was used to study the periphyton (microbiome) growing on filamentous green algae. The material containing filamentous algae with periphyton on the surface was collected in the villages of Sýkořice and Zbečno (Křivoklátsko Protected Landscape Area). The objects were studied in a LOMO MIN-8 St. Petersburg polarizing microscope and a Carl Zeiss Jena NfpK laboratory microscope equipped with an In Ph 160 basic body with variable dark field or color phase contrast and a Nikon D70 DSLR digital camera. Cells of filamentous algae of the genera Cladophora, Vaucheria, and Oedogonium were studied and the periphyton attached to them formed by cyanobacteria of the genera Chamaesiphon and Pleurocapsa and algae of the genera Characium, including diatoms of the genera Eunotia and Synedra. In all cases, the cell walls of the host algae showed a very strong birefringence. In contrast, the walls of cyanobacteria of the genera Chamaesiphon and Pleurocapsa were characterized by a much weaker birefringence (Pleurocapsa somewhat thicker), and the diatom frustules of the genera Eunotia and Synedra were almost without a birefringence. Strongly birefringent granules were found in the cytoplasm of the green alga of the genus Characium, which forms periphyton on the filamentous green algae of the genus Vaucheria. The periphyton on the filamentous alga of the genus Oedogonium, formed by cyanobacteria of the genus Pleurocapsa and diatoms of the genera Eunotia and Synedra, deposited in a massive layer of mucus containing birefringent crystals, showed a particularly strong birefringence. At the end of the vegetation of filamentous algae, their parts and remnants of periphyton (diatom frustules and crystals) became part of the detritus at the bottom of the culture vessel. The use of polarization microscopy in the study of filamentous algae with periphyton on the surface allows us not only to determine the birefringence of the observed structures, but also to partially deduce their chemical composition, or regular arrangement of particles, so-called shape birefringence.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by a grant from the Czech Science Foundation (21-17044S). Thanks are also due to Mr. S. Wolf (Lambda Praha) for installing stronger illumination in the microscope.

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  1. Molecular Structure Characterization Laboratory, Institute of Microbiology of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, 142 20 Prague 4-Krč, 1083, Vídeňská, Czech Republic

    Zdeněk Žižka

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Žižka, Z. Periphyton (microbiome) of filamentous algae studied by polarization microscopy, aided also by some contrasting optical methods. Folia Microbiol 68, 291–298 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12223-022-01011-1

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