Dicellula

{{Short description|Genus of algae}} {{Speciesbox | image = Dicellula geminata as Franceia geminata.jpg | image_caption = ''Dicellula geminata'' | genus = Dicellula | parent_authority = Svirenko, 1926 | species = geminata | authority = (Printz) Korshikov<ref name=AlgaeBase/> | synonyms = * ''Dicellula planctonica'' * ''Franceia geminata'' * ''Franceia tuberculata''<ref name=AlgaeBase/> }}

'''''Dicellula''''' is a genus of green algae in the family Chlorellaceae. It contains a single species, '''''Dicellula geminata'''''. It occurs in the plankton of eutrophic fresh water. It is distributed around the world,<ref name=AlgaeBase>{{AlgaeBase genus|id=44250|title=''Dicellula'' Svirenko, 1926 |access-date=2025-01-17}}</ref> but uncommon.<ref name=Shubert2014>{{cite book |editor-first1=John D.|editor-last1=Wehr|editor-first2=Robert G.|editor-last2=Sheath|editor-first3=J. Patrick|editor-last3=Kociolek |date= 2014 |edition=2 |title= Freshwater Algae of North America: Ecology and Classification |last1= Shubert|first1=Elliot| last2=Gärtner |first2=Georg |chapter= Chapter 7. Nonmotile Coccoid and Colonial Green Algae |url= |location= |publisher= Elsevier Inc. |page= |isbn=978-0-12-385876-4 }}</ref>

''Dicellula geminata'' consists mostly of 2-celled (occasionally 4-celled or single-celled) coenobia. The cells are oval to long-oval, about 8–22 × 5–12 μm, attached side-by-side. The cell wall is covered in delicate bristles up to 20 μm long, often with brownish incrustations at the base of each bristle. Cells are uninucleate (with one nucleus), with two (sometimes one or up to eight) chloroplasts each containing a single pyrenoid.<ref name=Bicudo_and_Menezes2006>{{cite book | title= Gêneros de Algas de Águas Continentais do Brasil: chave para identificação e descrições | edition=2 | year=2006 | first1=Carlos E. M. |last1=Bicudo | first2=Mariângela | last2= Menezes | publisher= RiMa Editora | pages=508 | isbn= 857656064X }}</ref><ref name=AlgaeBase/>

Asexual reproduction occurs by the formation of autospores arranged into coenobia; they are released by the gelatinization of the parental cell wall. Sexual reproduction or zoospores have not been reported from this genus.<ref name=AlgaeBase/>

==References== {{Reflist}}

Category:Trebouxiophyceae genera Category:Monotypic algae genera Category:Chlorellaceae Category:Freshwater algae