Species Diversity of selected Flora and Fauna in the river Yamuna at Kalpi (U.P.) India

To evaluate the pollution status species diversity of selected flora and fauna of the Yamuna river at Kalpi stretch was studied for a period of one year. Four sampling stations were selected for sampling purpose. Collected samples are evaluated for flora and fauna specially phytoplankton, aquatic macrophytes, zooplankton and fishes. Selected flora and fauna of studied water are presented by phytoplankton members of Chlorophyceae, Euglenophyceae, Bacillariophyceae and Cyanophyceae, aquatic macrophytes of 8 families, zooplankton members of Protozoa, Rotifera, Cladocera and Copepoda and fishes of 10 families. In these recorded species of different groups of flora and fauna, some pollution indicator species like Scenedesmus quadricauda, Stigeoclonium tenue,Ankistrodesmus falcatus, Chlorella vulgaris, Euglena viridis, Synedra ulna, Cyclotella meneghiniana, Navicula viridula, Nitzschia, Oscillatoria limosa, O. tenuis, O. chlorina, Phormidium uncinatum,Microcystis aeruginosa of phytoplanton, Eichhornea, Potamogeton and Cyperus species of aquatic macrophytes, Brachionus species and Keratella species of zooplankton and Clarias batrachus fish are also presented along with clean water species. Presence of both pollution indicator and clean water species show that water of Yamuna river at Kalpi stretch is moderately polluted. Sustaining the diversity of flora and fauna it is necessary to maintain living status of this river.

Structural and Biochemical Analysis of the Sheath of Phormidium uncinatum

ABSTRACT The sheath of the filamentous, gliding cyanobacteriumPhormidium uncinatum was studied by using light and electron microscopy. In thin sections and freeze fractures the sheath was found to be composed of helically arranged carbohydrate fibrils, 4 to 7 nm in diameter, which showed a substantial degree of crystallinity. As in all other examined motile cyanobacteria, the arrangement of the sheath fibrils correlates with the motion of the filaments during gliding motility; i.e., the fibrils formed a right-handed helix in clockwise-rotating species and a left-handed helix in counterclockwise-rotating species and were radially arranged in nonrotating cyanobacteria. Since sheaths could only be found in old immotile cultures, the arrangement seems to depend on the process of formation and attachment of sheath fibrils to the cell surface rather than on shear forces created by the locomotion of the filaments. As the sheath in P. uncinatum directly contacts the cell surface via the previously identified surface fibril forming glycoprotein oscillin (E. Hoiczyk and W. Baumeister, Mol. Microbiol. 26:699–708, 1997), it seems reasonable that similar surface glycoproteins act as platforms for the assembly and attachment of the sheaths in cyanobacteria. InP. uncinatum the sheath makes up approximately 21% of the total dry weight of old cultures and consists only of neutral sugars. Staining reactions and X-ray diffraction analysis suggested that the fibrillar component is a homoglucan that is very similar but not identical to cellulose which is cross-linked by the other detected monosaccharides. Both the chemical composition and the rigid highly ordered structure clearly distinguish the sheaths from the slime secreted by the filaments during gliding motility.

Coupling membranes as energy-transmitting cables. II. Cyanobacterial trichomes.

Power transmission along trichomes of filamentous cyanobacteria Phormidium uncinatum has been studied with the use of ethylrhodamine fluorescence as a probe for the transmembrane electric potential difference (delta psi). It is found that agents preventing the light-induced delta psi formation (photosynthetic redox chain inhibitor dibromothymoquinone) or dissipating delta psi (uncoupler tetrachlorotrifluoromethylbenzimidazole) strongly decrease the fluorescence of the ethyl-rhodamine-stained trichomes. K+-H+ antiporter nigericin converting delta pH to delta psi increases the fluorescence. These relationships are in agreement with the assumption that ethylrhodamine electrophoretically accumulates inside the cyanobacterial cells. Illumination of a single cell in the P. uncinatum trichome gives rise to quenching of the fluorescence in this cell and usually in one or two neighbor cells, whereas the rest of trichome remains fluorescing. A small light spot (5% of the trichome length) causes an increase in the ethylrhodamine fluorescence not only in the illuminated but also in the nonilluminated parts of the trichome up to the laser-treated cell or its neighbor(s). It is concluded ethylrhodamine can be used to monitor the power transmission which was previously demonstrated by microelectrode studies of the cyanobacterial trichomes. In certain trichomes, several "dark" cells appear during the storage of the trichomes without energy sources. Illumination for several minutes results in dark cells becoming fluorescing. Thus some cells or cell clusters can be reversibly excluded from the lateral delta psi-transmitting system of the trichome, the rest being still electrically connected. This means that filamentous cyanobacteria possess mechanisms to transmit power along the trichome and to switch off this transmission.