User:Mariamsona12/sandbox

Salient features of Algae

Algae are highly heterogeneous thallophytes which exhibit high diversity in various aspects of their habitat, organization and specializations.

some salient features of algae are the following :

1] body - simple, unicellular/multicellular, thalloid( not differentiated into roots , stems and leaves ).

2] unicellular thallus - non-motile, rhizopodial / coccoid.

3] multicellular thallus - colonial, palmelloid , dendroid , filamentous , siphonous , and so on

4] exhibit three levels of organization - prokaryotic, mesokaryotic , eukaryotic

5] cells are covered by a rigid cellulose cell wall

6] have pigments - chlorophylls ( a ,b, c , d and e )  carotenoids (α, β ,ɣ and ε ) - carotenes , lycopene , leutin , flavicine , fucoxanthin , myxoxanthin........ and Phycobiilins ( phycoerythrin, phycocyanin , allophycocyanin )

7] reserve food materials - oils, starches

8] absence of conducting and mechanical tissues

9] thallus is made of parenchymatous cells