Navicula is a genus of boat-shaped diatomalgae, comprising over 1,200 species.[1]Navicula is Latin for "small ship", and also a term in English for a boat-shaped incense-holder.[2]
Diatoms — eukaryotic, primarily aquatic, single-celled photosynthetic organisms — play an important role in global ecology, producing about a quarter of all the oxygen within Earth's biosphere, often serving as foundational organisms, or keystone species in the food chain of many environments where they provide a staple for the diets of many aquatic species.
Navicula diatoms have been observed to possess a motile ability to glide over one another and on hard surfaces such as microscope slides.[3][4][5] Around the outside of the navicula's shell is a girdle of mucilage strands that can flow and thus act as a tank track.[6]
^Gupta, S; Agrawal, SC (2007). "Survival and motility of diatoms Navicula grimmei and Nitzschia palea affected by some physical and chemical factors". Folia Microbiol (Praha). 52 (2): 127–34. doi:10.1007/BF02932151. PMID17575911. S2CID20030370.
^J Microbiol Methods. 2013 Mar;92(3):349-54. doi: 10.1016/j.mimet.2013.01.006. Epub 2013 Jan 18. Semi-circular microgrooves to observe active movements of individual Navicula pavillardii cells. Umemura K1, Haneda T, Tanabe M, Suzuki A, Kumashiro Y, Itoga K, Okano T, Mayama S.
Media related to Navicula at Wikimedia Commons
