Substance stimulating the differentiation of spores of the blue-green alga Cylindrospermum licheniforme.

Abstract

THE study of intercellular inductions in higher plants and animals is hindered by the complexity of the multicellular tissues involved. Sporulation of filamentous blue-green algae is a relatively simple process to study because these algae contain, in linear array, only three types of cells. There are vegetative cells, and heterocysts and spores which form by differentiation of vegetative cells. Wolk1,2 showed that heterocysts of the blue-green alga Anabaena cylindrica Lemm. induce adjacent vegetative cells to differentiate into spores. We report here that a substance produced by the related alga, Cylindrospermum licheniforme, greatly stimulates sporulation of that same alga.