Acaryochloris marina is a symbiotic species of the phylum Cyanobacteria that produces Chlorophyll d

Chlorophyll d

Chlorophyll d is a form of chlorophyll, identified in 1996. It absorbs far-red light, at 710 nm wavelength, just outside the optical range. Acaryochloris marina, a bacterium, uses it for photosynthesis....

, allowing it to utilise far-red

Far-red

Far-red light is light at the extreme red end of the visible spectrum, between red and infra-red light. Usually regarded as the region between 700 and 800 nm wavelength, it is dimly visible to some eyes. It is reflected or transmitted by plants because of the absorbance spectrum of...

 light, at 710 nm wavelength.

Description

It was first discovered in 1993 from coastal isolates of coral in the Republic of Palau in the west Pacific Ocean and announced in 1996. Despite the claim on the 1996 Nature paper that its formal description was to be published shortly thereafter, a tenatitive partial description was presented in 2003 due to phylogenetic issues (deep branching cyanobacterium).

Genome

Its genome was sequenced in 2008, revealing a large bacterial genome of 8.3 Mb with 9 plasmids.

Etymology

The name Acaryochloris is a combination of the Greek prefix a (ἄν) meaning "without", the (neuter) noun caryo (κάρυον) meaning "nut" (here intended as "nucleus") and the adjective chloros (χλωρός) meaning "green" (or more correctly the femine Neolatin noun N.L. chloris); therefore the medieval Latin

Medieval Latin

Medieval Latin was the form of Latin used in the Middle Ages, primarily as a medium of scholarly exchange and as the liturgical language of the medieval Roman Catholic Church, but also as a language of science, literature, law, and administration. Despite the clerical origin of many of its authors,...

 [sic. in, it is Neolatin]
feminine noun Acaryochloris means "without nucleus green".
The specific epithet marina is a Latin

Latin

Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...

feminine adjective meaning "marine".

Classification

Due to historical reason, the classification of Cyanobacteria is problematic and many cyanobacteria are not validly published, meaning they have not yet been placed into the classification framework. One of these not officially recognised species is Acaryochloris marina, which technically should be written as "Acaryochloris marina" in official writings, but in effect this is rarely done (cf.)