CYANOBACTERIA

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does cyanobacteria mean? 

• CYANOBACTERIA (noun)
  The noun CYANOBACTERIA has 1 sense:

1. predominantly photosynthetic prokaryotic organisms containing a blue pigment in addition to chlorophyll; occur singly or in colonies in diverse habitats; important as phytoplankton

  Familiarity information: CYANOBACTERIA used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• CYANOBACTERIA (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Predominantly photosynthetic prokaryotic organisms containing a blue pigment in addition to chlorophyll; occur singly or in colonies in diverse habitats; important as phytoplankton

Classified under:

Nouns denoting animals

Synonyms:

blue-green algae; cyanobacteria

Hypernyms ("cyanobacteria" is a kind of...):

eubacteria; eubacterium; true bacteria (a large group of bacteria having rigid cell walls; motile types have flagella)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "cyanobacteria"):

nostoc (found in moist places as rounded jellylike colonies)

trichodesmium (large colonial bacterium common in tropical open-ocean waters; important in carbon and nitrogen fixation)

Holonyms ("cyanobacteria" is a member of...):

class Cyanobacteria; class Cyanophyceae; Cyanophyceae (photosynthetic bacteria found in fresh and salt water, having chlorophyll a and phycobilins; once thought to be algae: blue-green algae)

Derivation:

cyanobacterial (relating to or caused by photosynthetic bacteria of the class Cyanobacteria)

 Context examples 

“So we kept looking around,” Woo said, saying the next option was photosynthetic bacteria called cyanobacteria because it is “more rugged” and could survive with heart cells in a petri dish.

(Oxygen-Producing Bacteria Could Help Heart Attack Sufferers, VOA News)

Cyanobacteria rely on nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorous, which they must get from their environment.

(Research reveals harmful algal blooms' daily cycles, National Science Foundation)

Limestone surfaces are also more likely to harbor lichens — symbiotic communities composed of fungi and photosynthesizing cyanobacteria or algae.

(Tales from the crypt: Life after death in a graveyard, National Science Foundation)

Cyanotoxins are produced by a group of bacteria called cyanobacteria, which are mainly found in freshwater.

(Steaming Fish More Healthy than Boiling, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

Cyanobacteria can do this even though oxygen, a byproduct of photosynthesis, interferes with the process of nitrogen fixation.

(Bacteria Used to Create Fertilizer Out of Thin Air, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

Occurs in plants, algae, cyanobacteria and lichens.

(Photosynthesis, NCI Thesaurus)

The cryptophycins are a family of 16-membered macrolide antimitotic agents isolated from the cyanobacteria Nostoc sp. The mechanism of anticancer activity of the cryptophycins has been associated with their destabilization of microtubules and induction of bcl-2 phosphorylation leading to apoptosis.

(Cryptophycin, NCI Thesaurus)

Cyanobacteria are the only bacteria that have a circadian rhythm.

(Bacteria Used to Create Fertilizer Out of Thin Air, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

After that, Woo and his team injected cyanobacteria into the beating hearts of anesthetized rats, comparing the oxygen levels among rats with their hearts exposed to light and rats that did not have light shined on their hearts.

(Oxygen-Producing Bacteria Could Help Heart Attack Sufferers, VOA News)

Scientists at the Great Lakes Center for Fresh Waters and Human Health showed that shifts in metabolic functions of freshwater cyanobacteria present in toxic algal blooms take place according to the time of day.

(Research reveals harmful algal blooms' daily cycles, National Science Foundation)