Cyanobacterial patterns

[gekko]

I thought that the cyanobacteria (I think these might be Microcystis) formed interesting patterns:
Edit: These turn out to be Zoogloea (thanks to actinophrys for the correction!)

[75RR]

Indeed they do.

Can you confirm/list illumination please.

1 Darkfield
2 DIC
3 ?
4 Phase

[gekko]

Indeed they do.

Can you confirm/list illumination please.

1 Darkfield
2 DIC
3 ?
4 Phase

Almost right:
. Darkfield____Oblique
Brightfield____Phase
Objectives used were:
10x____10x
.4x____10x
I think the colors in the brightfield image might be misleading: they are likely due to chromatic aberration. I guess I should have converted the image to gray scale.

[actinophrys]

Hi gekko,
I'm curious if these are still from the muddy patch in your yard, which has been interesting to follow. The patterns in the photos are neat, but the pigmentation characteristic of phototrophs like cyanobacteria isn't apparent. So I'd think they are more likely some other bacteria, like Zoogloea, a type from organic-rich water.

[gekko]

Hi actinophrys,
Yes, those were from the same muddy pothole. I'm sure you are right. I hazarded a guess of Microcystis because in the past I've seen what I took to be Microcystis (see image below, which, by the way, did have a purple color) make distinct patterns so I just assumed they were the same (I know, in my ignorance, I must not assume things ). Thanks again for the explanation and identification. I've just "Googled" images of Zoogloea and I see that some of those images show very similar worm-like shapes (different from the kind of figures-of-eight patterns that I've seen with Microcystis).
Edit: It turns out that my identification was wrong again here: Lamprocystis, not Microcystis (and, again, thanks to actinophrys for the correction!)

[75RR]

Must have missed that last photo. I am assuming you posted it before? Very interesting!

[gekko]

Must have missed that last photo. I am assuming you posted it before? Very interesting!

Thank you. This is a very old photo. It is possible that I have posted it to the old forum a long time ago.

[actinophrys]

If it's not too presumptuous to do a little soapboxing:

In animals and fungi colours can be fairly incidental or even mutable, variously related to food, health, displays, toxins, or so on. They are more central in algae and phototrophic bacteria, though, where they are really a sort of "dietary" niche, determining what portion of the spectrum they specialize on.

Different versions of photosynthetic machinery involve different families of pigments, and so they tend to be fairly conservative and so characteristic for different lineages. The visible colour isn't always from them - e.g. Haematococcus are red from a non-photosynthetic pigment - but as a rule it is actually one of the better indications of what group you've found.

Cyanobacteria are usually blue-green, less often red or golden-brown; I'm not sure any are purple except some sheathed Porphyrosiphon. That colour on the other hand is associated with some proteobacteria, generally called purple bacteria. In particular Lamprocystis also form dense aggregates, and though images seem to be limited I think they're a good candidate for what you have here.

[gekko]

Many thanks, actinophrys, both for correcting my wrong identification (wrong identification is bad because it can mislead others) as well as for your excellent explanation of the colors we see in cyanobacteria. Your comments are always very informative and are much appreciated!

[vasselle]

Bonjour Gekko
Belle observation et les photos s'ont magnifique
Cordialement seb

[gekko]

seb an Lymia, many thanks for your kind comments .