Dinoflagellates By Alex Yoo

Key Features Use a pair of flagella in order to move. They spin as they swim. The flagella are on grooves. Most are photosynthetic and unicellular but some live in colonies. They have a cellulose cell wall that looks like armor. During cell division, the nuclear envelope stays intact and the microtubules pass through the nucleus to keep it the nucleus oriented the right way. Then it does binary fission-like division

Life Cycle Motile haploid stages Population growth usually through asexual reproduction In the diagram, brown = motile, whitish color = sessile

Some Interesting Facts Pfiesteria, a species of dinoflagellates, causes red tides, algal blooms that cause fish to die and harm humans Some species make their own light through bioluminescence The first dinoflagellate discovered was called Pyrrhophyta or “fire algae” because of its bioluminescence

More Interesting Facts Zooxanthellae help build coral reefs by providing nutrients to its symbiont coral Besides diatoms, dinoflagellates are the largest group of eukaryotic algae

Significance to Humans Red tides harm not only fish, but also humans Half of all the dinoflagellates are photosynthetic and provide oxygen

Examples of Dinoflagellates Ordered from left to right: Pfiesteria Ceratium tripos Zooxanthellae Togula britannica