Bacillaria paxillifer

Bacillaria paxillifer
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Clade: Sar
Clade: Stramenopiles
Division: Ochrophyta
Clade: Bacillariophyta
Class: Bacillariophyceae
Order: Bacillariales
Family: Bacillariaceae
Genus: Bacillaria
Species:
B. paxillifer
Binomial name
Bacillaria paxillifer
(O. F. Müll.) Hendy (1951)[1]
Synonyms
  • Bacillaria paradoxa Gmelin
  • Nitzschia paradoxa

Bacillaria paxillifer (or Bacillaria paxillifera) is a colonial diatom species in the family Bacillariaceae.[2] Bacillaria paxillifer is homotypic with Bacillaria paradoxa, but B. paxillifera is the correct name.[3]

Bacillaria have a unique form of colonial motility among diatoms.[3] Individual cells (with their long axes parallel to one another) slide against their neighbors in a coordinated fashion, allowing the entire structure to expand or contract.[4]

Taxonomy

Bacillaria paxillifer was originally described under the name Vibrio paxillifer by Otto Frederick Müller in 1786. It is the first diatom species known to be described.[5] It was separately described two years later (1788) by Johann Friedrich Gmelin as Bacillaria paradoxa. The correct name, Bacillaria paxillifera (O.F.Müll.) N.I.Hendey. (1951), was established based on rules of priority.[2][5]

The Bacillaria Shuffle

In October 1987, at a North American Diatom Symposium meeting in Tomahawk, Wisconsin, Edward C. Theriot and P. Roger Sweets invented a dance called the Bacillaria Shuffle, based on the movements of the microorganism. The dance involved the dancers sliding against each other while chanting "Do the Bacillaria!" It was very chaotic and involved falling over, despite it not being officially part of the dance, due to the participants being drunk.[6]

References

  1. ↑ "Bacillaria". Archived from the original on 2012-04-25. Retrieved 2011-12-21.
  2. 1 2 "ITIS database". Archived from the original on 2018-03-20. Retrieved 2018-03-21.
  3. 1 2 Jahn, Regine; Schmid, Anna-Maria M. (2007-08-15). "Revision of the brackish-freshwater diatom genus Bacillaria Gmelin (Bacillariophyta) with the description of a new variety and two new species". European Journal of Phycology. 42 (3): 295–312. doi:10.1080/09670260701428864. ISSN 0967-0262.
  4. ↑ Gordon, Richard (2016-01-22). "Partial synchronization of the colonial diatom Bacillaria "paradoxa"". Research Ideas and Outcomes. 2 e7869. doi:10.3897/rio.2.e7869. ISSN 2367-7163.
  5. 1 2 "Bacillaria paxillifera | Species - Diatoms of North America". diatoms.org. Retrieved 2024-09-25.
  6. ↑ Ussing, Anne P.; Gordon, Richard; Ector, Luc; Buczkó, Krisztina; Desinitzkiy, Alexey G.; VanLandingham, Sam L. (2005). "The Colonial Diatom "Bacillaria paradoxa": Chaotic Gliding Motility, Lindenmeyer Model of Colonial Morphogenesis, and Bibliography, with Translation of O.F. Müller (1783), "About a peculiar being in the beach-water"" (PDF). Diatom Monographs. 5.