Abstract
Bacillaria paxillifer (O. F. Müll.) Hendy is both a motile and a colonial diatom. The cells within a colony are attached valve to valve and normally glide only against each other. Cells never glide completely past one another but always remain attached and overlapped for a distance which represents at least 15% of a single cell's length. Examination of cleaned frustules using SEM revealed no silica structures by which adjacent cells can attach to one another. We suggest that mucilage excreted through the raphes may provide the means for cell attachment and that the silica raphe protrusions of adjacent cells fit closely together, preventing the mucilage from rapidly dissolving. It is also suggested that the raphe mucilage has an anomalous viscosity and that this property may be responsible for the alignment of cells within non-motile colonies.
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