Fucus
Fucus | |
---|---|
Fucus serratus | |
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Clade: | Diaphoretickes |
Clade: | SAR |
Clade: | Stramenopiles |
Phylum: | Gyrista |
Subphylum: | Ochrophytina |
Class: | Phaeophyceae |
Order: | Fucales |
Family: | Fucaceae |
Genus: | Fucus L. |
Species | |
|
Fucus is a genus of brown algae found in the intertidal zones of rocky seashores almost throughout the world.
Description and life cycle
The
These algae have a relatively simple life cycle and produce only one type of thallus which grows to a maximum size of 2 m.[citation needed] Fertile cavities, the conceptacles, containing the reproductive cells are immersed in the receptacles near the ends of the branches. After meiosis oogonia and antheridia, the female and male reproductive organs, produce egg cells and sperm respectively that are released into the sea where fertilisation takes place. The resulting zygote develops directly into the diploid plant. This contrasts with the life cycle of the flowering plant,[3][4] where the egg cells and sperm are produced by a haploid multicellular generation, albeit very strongly reduced, and the egg cells are fertilised within the ovules of the parent plant and then released as seeds.
Distribution and ecology
Species of Fucus are recorded almost worldwide. They are dominant on the shores of the British Isles,[5] the northeastern coast of North America[6] and California.[3]
In the
Uses
In Scotland and Norway, up until the mid-19th century, several
Fucus species can also be used for
In 2005, it was announced that bacteria grown on Fucus have the ability to attack and kill the MRSA superbacterium.[10]
Because of their easily accessible apolar eggs and free-floating zygotes, several Fucus species have been used as model organisms to study cell polarity, the development of growth axes, and the role of the cell wall in establishing and maintaining cell identity.[11][12][13][14][15]
Predator
The
Taxonomy
This list of species of Fucus excludes names of uncertain status:[16][17]
- Fucus atomarius (Woodward) Bertoloni
- Fucus ceranoides L. – horned wrack *
- Fucus chalonii Feldmann
- Fucus cottonii M. J. Wynne & Magne *(=Fucus cottonii M.J.Wynne & Magne nom. illeg.)
- Fucus distichus L. *
- Fucus evanescens C.Agardh *
- Fucus furcatus Stackhouse, 1801
- Fucus guiryi G. I. Zardi, K. R. Nicastro, E. A. Serrão, G. A. Pearson *
- Fucus gardneri P. C. Silva
- Fucus lagasca Clemente, 1807
- Fucus mytili Nienburg
- Fucus nereideus Lightfoot
- Fucus radicans L. Bergström & L. Kautsky, 2005
- Fucus serratus L. – toothed wrack *
- Fucus spermophorus L.
- Fucus spiralis L. – spiral wrack *
- Fucus tendo L.
- Fucus vesiculosus L. – bladder wrack *
- Fucus virsoides J. Agardh
* Species recorded around the coast of Britain.[5]
Fucus distichus
F. distichus is up to 10 cm long with a short stout cylindrical stipe, branching dichotomous, flat and with a mid-rib.[18] F. distichus subsp. edentatus was first described from Shetland by Börgesen in 1903. Powell found F. distichus subsp. anceps on the north coast of Caithness. It had also been recorded from: Orkney, Fair Isle, St Kilda and the Outer Hebrides in Scotland; in Ireland it had been recorded from Counties Clare, Donegal and Kerry.[19][20] Two subspecies of F. distichus (subsp. anceps and subsp. edentatus) have been described from the British Isles.[19]
Fucus distichus is the organism used as a model to study the development of cell polarity, since it forms an apolar zygote that can develop polarity given a varying number of gradients.
Fucus serratus
F. serratus, toothed wrack, is the most distinctive of all the Fucus species. It clearly shows a distinctive serrated edge to the frond not shown by the other species of the genus.[21]
Fucus spiralis
F. spiralis is one of the three most common algae on the shores of the British Isles. It grows to about 40 cm long and does not show air bladders as found on F.vesiculosus or toothed edges as found on F. serratus. It forms a zone near the top of the shore above the zones of F. vesiculosus and F. serratus.
Fucus vesiculosus
This is one of the most common species of Fucus, common on most shores in the mid-littoral. It has the common name "bladder wrack", and is readily identified by a distinct mid-rib and air vesicles in pairs on either side of the mid-rib.[22]
Notes
- Ascophyllum nodosum (formerly Fucus nodosus L.), Fucus serratus, and Laminaria digitata (Hudson) J.V. Lamouroux (formerly Fucus digitatus L.).[8]
References
- ISBN 978-0-7992-1793-3.
- NUI Galway. Archived from the originalon 2007-03-04. Retrieved 2007-04-28.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-8047-0867-8.
- ISBN 978-0-521-30419-1.
- ^ ISBN 978-3-906166-35-3.
- ISBN 978-0-472-04904-2.
- ^ J. R. Lewis (1964). The Ecology of Rocky Shores. The English Universities Press Ltd, London.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-8369-1909-7.
- ISBN 978-0964764378.
- ^ "Sponge puzzles superbug experts". BBC News. December 26, 2005.
- PMID 10562734.
- PMID 3336780.
- ISSN 1360-1385.
- PMID 8787737.
- S2CID 41196632.
- ^ M. D. Guiry (2006). "Fucus Linnaeus 1753: 1158". AlgaeBase. Retrieved August 21, 2006.
- ^ Guiry, M.D. (2011). "Fucus Linnaeus, 1753". WoRMS. World Register of Marine Species. Retrieved 2012-02-29.
- ^ G. Russell (1978). D. E. G. Irvine & J. H. Price (ed.). Modern Approaches to the Taxonomy of Red and Brown Algae. Systematics Association. pp. 339–369.
- ^ S2CID 56433449.
- S2CID 85774776.
- ^ H. T. Powell (1963). "Speciation in the genus Fucus L., and related genera". In J. P. Harding & N. Tebble (ed.). Speciation in the Sea. Systematics Association Publications. Vol. 5. pp. 63–77.
- ^ Lily Newton (1931). A Handbook of the British Seaweeds. London: British Museum.