Diatoms with studied sexual reproduction

Abstract

: Diatoms (Bacillariophyta) are unicellular organisms with extremely high species diversity. According to AlgaeBase, the names of approximately 17 thousand species are currently considered to be taxonomically accepted. It is assumed that there are about 100,000 species of diatoms on the planet. Sexual reproduction is an obligatory stage of the life cycle in many diatoms due to specific structure of their frustules and the mode of reduction and restoration of the latter. At the same time, analysis of literature showed that over the entire three–century history of the study, data (in some cases very incomplete) have been accumulated on the sexual reproduction of approximately 350 species. There are about 1000 literature sources providing information about sexual reproduction of diatoms. Here, we present a summary of those species of Bacillariophyta for which data on sexual reproduction are available. The degree of knowledge of the particular classes of diatoms was analysed.