Micromonas
Encyclopedia
In taxonomy
Alpha taxonomy
Alpha taxonomy is the discipline concerned with finding, describing and naming species of living or fossil organisms. This field is supported by institutions holding collections of these organisms, with relevant data, carefully curated: such institutes include natural history museums, herbaria and...

, Micromonas is a genus of algae
Algae
Algae are a large and diverse group of simple, typically autotrophic organisms, ranging from unicellular to multicellular forms, such as the giant kelps that grow to 65 meters in length. They are photosynthetic like plants, and "simple" because their tissues are not organized into the many...

, specifically of the Mamiellaceae
Mamiellaceae
In taxonomy, the Mamiellaceae are a family of algae, specifically of the Mamiellales....

. The genus contains a single species, Micromonas pusilla, which is the dominant photosynthetic picoeukaryote
Picoeukaryote
Picoeukaryotes are picoplanktonic eukaryotic organisms that range in size from 0.2 – 2.0 µm. They are distributed throughout the world’s marine and freshwater ecosystems and constitute a significant contribution to autotrophic communities...

 in some marine ecosystems. Unlike many marine algae, it is distributed widely in both warm and cold waters. It is a good swimmer and swims towards light.

M. pusilla is infected by a reovirus called Micromonas pusilla reovirus (MpRV).

External links


Scientific databases



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