Chrysophytes, or golden algae, are common microscopic chromists in fresh water.

Some
species are colorless, but the vast majority are photosynthetic. As such, they are
particularly important in lakes, where they may be the primary source of food for
zooplankton. They are not considered truly autotrophic by some biologists because nearly
all chrysophytes become facultatively heterotrophic in the absence of adequate light, or
in the presence of plentiful dissolved food. When this occurs, the chrysoplast atrophies
and the alga may turn predator, feeding on bacteria or diatoms.

There are more than a thousand described species of golden algae, most of them free-
swimming and unicellular, but there are filamentous and colonial forms. Other
chrysophytes may spend part of their life as amoeboid cells. At the left and center of the
above illustration is Dinobryon, a freshwater genus in which the individual cells are
surrounded by vase-shaped loricae, composed of chitin fibrils and other polysaccharides.
The colonies grow as branched or unbranched chains. A spherical colonial form, Synura,
is on the right; the surfaces of these cells are covered by silica scales. Species which
produce siliceous coverings may have bristles or scales with quite complex structure.
Some researchers group the chrysophytes with silica scales in a separate taxon, the
Synurophyceae.

The oldest known chrysophytes are from calcareous and siliceous deposits of Cretaceous
age, but they reached their greatest diversity in the Miocene. The group actually has a
fairly complete fossil record, because most freshwater chrysomonads secrete resting
cysts of silica, which may be abundant in certain rocks -- in some Paleocene deposits,
chrysophyte cysts outnumber the diatoms! The fossils of chrysophytes, like those of
diatoms and coccolithophorids, are often used as paleoecological indicators to reconstruct
ancient environments.

It is now generally believed that the Chrysophyta is a heterogeneous group, probably

paraphyletic. Several groups formerly included here have been given separate
recognition, such as the Raphidiophyceae, Eumastigophyceae, Xanthophyceae,
Silicoflagellata, Sarcinochrysophyceae, and others. However, there is as yet no general
consensus as to how these groups are related to each other or to the other chromist
groups.

Higher order taxa:

Eukaryota, stramenopiles

Classes:

Diatoms (Bacillariophyta), Golden-brown algae (Chrysophyceae), Yellow-green algae

(Xanthophyceae)

NCBI: Taxonomy Genome

Description and Significance
Chrysophyta is a phylum of unicellular marine or freshwater protists. Members of this
phylum include the diatoms (class Bacillariophyta), golden/golden-brown algae (class
Chrysophyceae), and yellow-green algae (class Xanthophyceae). Species' characteristics
are varied: some are free-swimming unicells, while others are filamentous or colonial.

Many chysophtyes are photosynthetic, which led to their initial categorization as plants.
Actually, however, they are protist "secondary endosymbionts." That is, their
evolutionary history included ingestion of an algae that already possessed a chloroplast
descendent of a photosynthetic bacterium. The ingested algae (with its chloroplast)
ultimately degenerated as an obligate organelle of the protist cell.

Genome Structure
Two Chrysophyta mitochondrial genomes have been sequenced (see them here).

Cell Structure and Metabolism

Diatoms Image from Texas Parks and Wildlife

Golden alga Image from Texas Parks and Wildlife.

Because Chrysophyta encompasses so many species, there is no common cell structure.

Some cell walls are comprised mainly of cellulose, with large amounts of silica, while
some are amoeboid with no cell walls. If flagella are present, there may be one or two; if
there are two they may or may not be similar. Diatoms are capable of reproducing
sexually, but the chrysophytes commonly reproduce through cell division. Members of
Chrysophyta tend to be photosynthetic, but some, especially the golden algae, become
heterotrophic when there is inadequate light or if dissolved food is plentiful.
Ecology

Centric fossile diatom frustule. Image from Dennis Kunkel Microscopy at

www.DennisKunkel.com.

Members of Chrysophyta are found in marine and freshwater environments. The diatoms
and the golden-brown algae are the most ecologically significant; they make up part of
the plankton and nanoplankton that are the foundation of the aquatic food chain.
Distribution of these organisms depend on the class to which they belong.

Chrysophyta (krəsŏf'ətə), phylum (division) of unicellular marine or freshwater

organisms of the kingdom Protista consisting of the diatoms (class Bacillariophyceae),
the golden, or golden-brown, algae (class Chrysophyceae), and the yellow-green algae
(class Xanthophyceae). In many chrysophytes the cell walls are composed of cellulose
with large quantities of silica. Some have one or two flagella, which can be similar or
dissimilar. A few species are ameboid forms with no cell walls. The food storage
products of chrysophytes are oils or the polysaccharide laminarin. Formerly classified as
plants, the chrysophytes contain the photosynthetic pigments chlorophyll a and c; all but
the yellow-green algae also contain the carotenoid pigment fucoxanthin. Under some
circumstances diatoms will reproduce sexually, but the usual form of reproduction is cell
division. The diatoms and golden-brown algae are of great importance as components of
the plankton and nanoplankton that form the foundation of the marine food chain.