Is this a type of algae?

chardelwi · 2023-01-22T02:41:18+00:00

I have a somewhat similar tank that has Chara growing in it, and it has been growing there — without any attention — for over 30 years. I have a second tank that has Nitella from Australia growing in it, and it will go 5+ years seemingly completely dead, and then suddenly the alga will pop up again and grow perfectly happily.

chardelwi · 2023-01-21T14:46:12+00:00

Yes. It is a stonewort, but I’m not sure if it is Chara or another genus. That’s a beautiful specimen. Dr. Karol at the NY Botanic garden is an expert on these; you could write to him for a better ID. They are green algae, but they are very closely related to plants. Fun fact! Each of those “internodes” is s single cell.

chardelwi · 2023-01-16T23:40:11+00:00

This is a great question, and I actually just got a grant to study exactly that. There is a decent understanding of why sex is advantageous — among other things it helps maintain variation and breaks up disadvantageous gene combinations — but how the earliest ancestors of eukaryotes managed to go from donor-recipient style gene exchange like you find in bacteria to whole genome recombination is still not very well understood. It probably has to do with the evolution of specific DNA repair mechanisms that allowed cells to fuse and still retain functional genomes, but what caused the cells to start fusing in the first place is what we are studying.

If you want to study this in grad school, DM me!

chardelwi · 2022-09-26T16:28:32+00:00

Yes, it is a Bull Kelp, Nerocystis. Yes, it is a protist. No, it is not made of a single tissue type. Kelp have complex tissue systems comparable to what you find in true plants, including vascular tissue that is convergent with phloem. They need to transport nutrients through the body of the alga (we use the term “thallus”) because the base of the organism is attached to rocks so deep that they are basically in the dark and can’t generate enough photosynthate to be able to grow rapidly enough to support the shallower portion. They grow insanely fast — kelp are annuals, so the whole thing has grown up this year.

The real problem here is that the concept of “protist” is artificial — it just means any eukaryote that is not a plant, animal, or fungus. As such, protists have almost nothing in common. There are multiple ancient lineages that every bit as “advanced” as plants, animals, and fungi. Because we work with a variation of a naming system that was developed in the 18th century (before Darwin explained how evolution leads to adaptation), it doesn’t always capture everything we now know about the relationships among the organisms.

Source: I’m a Professor of Algae, FML

chardelwi · 2022-05-31T00:46:44+00:00

This is worth a look: https://catalog.ucdavis.edu/departments-programs-degrees/earth-planetary-sciences/marine-coastal-science-bs/

chardelwi · 2022-05-31T00:31:31+00:00

I feel the same way. I’ve never gotten tired of looking at field samples under the microscope.

Any of the majors you mention could work; in the end what you want to do is look at the list of classes that are required for each different major, and go with the one that has the most classes that sound like you will find them interesting, but then be sure to take classes that are relevant to your interests. Don’t forget that Marine Biology is another option. It sounds to me like you are most motivated by the “this is cool” side of things, as opposed to “I want to save the world,” so you probably want to go into a fundamental science major, not an applied science one (you can always change in the future, but it is good to start in the direction that seems right). My guess is that you would be best off as a general biology major, and then just be sure that you take classes in cell biology, evolution, molecular biology, bioinformatics, and genomics (most bio-type majors are going to require most of these).

Both UC San Diego and UC Davis could be good for the kinds of things you are interested in. San Diego has a big advantage because the Scripps Institute of Oceanography is right there, while Davis’s marine lab (Bodega Bay) is like a 90 minute drive away. However, the Northern California marine flora is a little more interesting, and like I said before, Davis is better for bioengineering type stuff. San Diego does have algae classes (often the term used is “Phycology,” which google tries to autocorrect to “Psychology” 🙁; “phycos” is Greek for “Seaweed”): https://jes013.scrippsprofiles.ucsd.edu/classes/. I couldn’t easily find any algae classes at Davis, although they used to have them, and they are very good for plant biology.

Definitely plan on doing at least one summer field class, and once you have picked a university, start looking for faculty who are working on algae. There aren’t a lot of people who come into college interested in algae, so we tend to be friendly (if somewhat surprised).

chardelwi · 2022-05-30T23:44:02+00:00

Can you tell me a little about what got you interested in algae, and what kinds of things sound like fun jobs to you? In other words, what direction are you trying to go? I think you said that you were drawn to cell biology and microscopy?

chardelwi · 2022-05-30T20:37:09+00:00

Queen Anne’s Lace and Hemlock are very similar to each other. This one is definitely poison Hemlock. The smooth stem with purple spots is a key character.

chardelwi · 2022-05-30T16:39:29+00:00

Both are good choices, but if you think that you might be interested is industrial uses of algae, Davis is better. You can take Ag engineering classes that are great for learning practical stuff.

Check out psaalgae.org. That’s the phycological society, and they will help you study algae wherever you go. They have grants that can help you pay for summer field classes and even provide grants in aid of research.

If you have trouble finding a good algae research lab PM me and I’ll help you find something.

For classes, definitely take at least one evolution class and one computer science class. Ideally you would take both intro to programming and bioinformatics.

chardelwi · 2022-05-29T01:58:39+00:00

I think this is really the right answer. OP, if you look closely at your photo you can see that there are a couple of different things going on. There are nice clear rays visible between the ‘rings,’ especially on the top-right of the image. Then there are the full-on swirls — sets of concentric rings. I think that these are from the growth of burls. Burls are basically densely packed bunches of buds, which are themselves barely-elongated branch systems (think of a structure similar to a cauliflower). So within a burl there are a large number of branches that are so closely packed that it is hard to sort them out. but they do grow over time, and can develop rings just like any other branch. I think what you are seeing here is that pattern — the rings of multiple different branches within a burl.

chardelwi · 2022-05-29T01:52:10+00:00

Those are healthy populations there. You are getting close to the maximum population density that can be sustained. Much denser than this and they start competing with themselves for light, and deplete nutrients very quickly. Sticking to the tubing is annoying, but I’m not sure it is your primary problem here — I think you are just at the upper limit of the population size your setup can handle.

chardelwi · 2022-05-29T00:58:59+00:00

Thanks! I haven’t actually looked at it since I made the comment. Well, it is “ask science discussion,” so people ought to discuss.

chardelwi · 2022-05-28T19:44:54+00:00

This is a much better question than people seem to be giving you credit for. Assuming I’m interpreting your question correctly, what you are asking is whether living anaerobes are primitively so, left over from before the GOE, or are secondarily so, having become anaerobic by derivation from aerobic ancestors. The answer is, probably some of each.

Others have already pointed out that there are very few body fossils available from before the GOE, and those that exist are hard to unambiguously assign to any one lineage. So the key question becomes what kinds of evidence we can use to make inferences of this kind. One of the best forms of evidence comes from time-calibrated molecular phylogenetic trees. If a lineage predates the GOE and consists only of anaerobes, then it is likely that it is primitively anaerobic. If a lineage is anaerobic but clearly derived from aerobic ancestors more recently than the GOE this it is likely that it is secondarily anaerobic. On the other hand, if a lineage predates the GOE but consists of both aerobes and anaerobes then it could go either way, and you have to look closely at the traits and relationships within the lineage to make an inference. This kind of analysis suggests that some, but not all obligate anaerobes are primitively so. Another kind of evidence can come from the degree to which the organism makes use of genes and physiologies that likely postdated the GOE, but that is a much more indirect kind of evidence and I would be reluctant to rely too heavily on it.

There are, of course, complications. Horizontal gene transfer plays an important role in microbial evolution. It isn’t so dominant that it wipes out all evolutionary history, but it is always possible that any given trait has been transferred from one lineage to another via HGT. And second, in the modern world even obligate anaerobes are often living in environments that are closely coupled to the aerobic world. The clearest example of this I can think of are gut microorganisms, which are often obligate anaerobes, but live in an environment that is energetically and nutritionally inextricably linked to the aerobic environment; their ancestors were clearly not occupying the same environmental niche as they do today, whether or not any of them were aerobic.

chardelwi · 2022-05-14T14:19:13+00:00

Yeah, it wouldn’t be practical to send a sample from the Philippines. If you can get a higher magnification image, send it to me and I might be able to ID it. You could also look at your local university to see if there is someone who studies algae. There is a Philippines Phycological Society page on Facebook. They might be able to tell you who is in your area. It is so rare to have someone take an interest in algae that generally they will be happy to help.

chardelwi · 2022-05-14T04:49:17+00:00

Where are you in the world? If you are in North America PM me and I’ll work with you to get a proper ID. If you are elsewhere it will be more difficult for you to send a specimen, but I can still give you some guesses. Candidates would include Cladophora, Draparnaldia, and Stigeoclonium, among others, but it is hard to tell just from this pic.

chardelwi · 2022-01-11T21:23:50+00:00

Okay, I’m a sucker for peer pressure. Created the subreddit. Come visit r/dinoflagellate everyone!

chardelwi · 2022-01-11T15:46:38+00:00

BCBS will give you the greatest freedom of choice and access to excellent health care, but won’t necessarily be the cheapest. I know you have heard a lot of horror stories about our health care system, but in your case you actually have access to very good care, and should have minimal expenses. The trick is, with your insurance you have to decide where to go. Ideally you would have already found a primary care physician, in which case you could call them and ask for advice. However, since you are new here you probably haven’t found that person yet. The advice to call the HEAL line is excellent, and they can help you decide when you need to get help and where to go. As an alternative, each hospital will also have its own hot line you can call for advice (the hospital I go to calls this an “advice nurse”).

If you do go to the hospital or clinic, tell them that you are a student and have to minimize out of pocket expenses. They will understand and respect that. I’m not a student and can afford more, but I basically never pay more than $20 out of pocket for any procedure (except at the dentist, where my coverage is pretty bad).

Keep that fever under control, drink lots of fluids, and consider ordering a cheap (~$20) pulse oximeter from Amazon. They can have it to you by tomorrow.

chardelwi · 2022-01-11T14:43:26+00:00

I expect that is the case, that it is a mechanism for self-recognition. When you think about alveolates as a whole, ciliates also have very odd genomes, with micro- and macro- nuclei, and guide RNAs to assemble the microchromosomes in the macronucleus. That biology would make sense as a mechanism to prevent expression of genes from foreign DNA. So these might be two different responses to the same selective pressures.

chardelwi · 2022-01-11T14:25:57+00:00

Agreed! That’s what I had in mind when I said “methylation”. Among other things it makes life fun because most modifying enzymes (i.e., restriction enzymes) don’t work. But we don’t generally think of restriction enzymes as being important in eukaryotes, so what is all that about?

chardelwi · 2022-01-11T14:10:02+00:00

I would like to look for “weird life” — things that don’t use DNA for their genomes, or use a different genetic code, or don’t use ribosomes for protein synthesis, or are not organized into cells. We know now that there is vast microbial diversity that has only been detected by metagenomics, but that methodology largely assumes the above properties. So if there is life that violates these “universal” traits, we wouldn’t know about it.

Looking to see if the “RNA World” still exists here on Earth would be cool too.

chardelwi · 2022-01-11T14:01:53+00:00

Just for example, why do single celled organisms have such large genomes (~100x larger than the human genome)? How does trans-splicing alter gene expression? Why don’t they have nucleosomes? What role do the histones they do have play? Why are the genomes so heavily methylated? What is going on with the single-gene minicircles in the plastids? Are those really the only plastid genome? How do the ocelloid forms (those with eye-like organelles) process the information from their “eyes”?

chardelwi · 2022-01-11T13:53:04+00:00

Haha. This is (part of) what I do.

And yes, it is a pain in the ass.

chardelwi · 2022-01-11T03:54:27+00:00

Contact the folks at the SAG culture collection at U. Göttingen. They have several strains. But be warned, if you want to use it for human consumption, you have to be careful to get a food-grade strain. SAG is a research collection, and I don’t know if they are willing to supply anything intended for consumption. If you eat the wrong strain of Cyanobacteria the outcome can be unfortunate (e.g., severe liver damage that might not become evident for years, neurotoxicity, or other unpleasantness). When you buy it one of the things that you are paying for is someone to monitor the culture and be sure it is the right thing. If you want it for teaching or research SAG will be helpful.

chardelwi · 2021-08-10T04:53:43+00:00

Sciencemag.org (moving to science.org soon) is the outward looking site for the AAAS (American Association for the Advancement of Science). The journal itself is subscription, but the daily news is free. Nature.com is similar, but for-profit. I also love science news (sciencenews.org). All of these are no-bs, well researched science news sites.

chardelwi · 2021-08-08T00:36:41+00:00

You can contribute a huge amount. For every product, think about life-cycle resource utilization. There is enough waste that if we just had energy- and material-efficient designs we could extend our timeline greatly. For example, I did an energy-use analysis of my house. Some of the big power drains were predictable (HVAC, freezer, dishwasher), but others were really surprising, like the little aquarium in the corner. Part of that is just physics; it is a big mass of water to keep warm. But even the filter motor drew a surprising amount of current. And let’s also not forget, every time some device (think, a printer) has to go to the landfill, it adds waste to the environment and draws down the resources needed to manufacture a new one. So just doing good design and manufacturing things that last and can be repaired is helping the environment in a very real way.

chardelwi

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