Glaucophyte

The glaucophytes, also known as glaucocystophytes or glaucocystids, are a small group of unicellular algae found in freshwater and moist terrestrial environments,[1][2] less common today than they were during the Proterozoic.

[1] Along with red algae[1] and cyanobacteria, they harvest light via phycobilisomes, structures consisting largely of phycobiliproteins.

Together with red algae and Viridiplantae (green algae and land plants), glaucophytes form the Archaeplastida – a group of plastid-containing organisms that may share a unique common ancestor that established an endosymbiotic association with a cyanobacterium.

[4] The internal phylogeny of the glaucophytes and the number of genera and species varies considerably among taxonomic sources.

[4] As of March 2022[update], AlgaeBase divided glaucophytes into only two groups, placing Cyanophora in Glaucocystales rather than Cyanophorales (however the entry was dated 2011).

Representation of a glaucophyte
  1. Anterior flagellum (with hairs)
  2. Mucocyst , discharges a mucous mass sometimes used in cyst formation
  3. Plate
  4. Plate vesicle
  5. Starch granule
  6. Furrow
  7. Anterior folds
  8. Basal body
  9. Contractile vacuole , regulates the quantity of water inside a cell
  10. Golgi apparatus ; modifies proteins and sends them out of the cell
  11. Plastid membranes (2, primary)
  12. Peptidoglycan , a polysaccharide layer surrounding the cytoplasmic membrane
  13. Central body
  14. Thylakoids , site of the light-dependent reactions of photosynthesis
  15. Phycobilisome
  16. Nucleolus
  17. Nucleus
  18. Endoplasmic reticulum , the transport network for molecules going to specific parts of the cell
  19. Mitochondrion , creates ATP (energy) for the cell, (flat cristae)
  20. Posterior flagellum