The glaucophytes, also known as glaucocystophytes or glaucocystids, are a small group of freshwater microscopic algae Algae are a large and diverse group of simple, typically autotrophic organisms, ranging from unicellular to multicellular forms. The largest and most complex marine forms are called seaweeds. They are photosynthetic, like plants, and "simple" because they lack the many distinct organs found in land plants. For that reason they are.[1] Together with the red algae The red algae (or Rhodophyta, pronounced /roʊˈdɒfɨtə, ˌroʊdəˈfaɪtə/, from Greek: ῥόδον = rose + φυτόν (phyton) = plant, thus red plant) are one of the oldest groups of eukaryotic algae, and also one of the largest, with about 5,000–6,000 species of mostly multicellular, marine algae, including many notable seaweeds. Other and Viridiplantae In some classification systems they have been treated as a kingdom, under various names, e.g. Viridiplantae, Chlorobionta, or simply Plantae (green algae and land plants) they form the Archaeplastida The Archaeplastida are a major line of eukaryotes, comprising the land plants, green and red algae, and a small group called the glaucophytes. All of these organisms have plastids surrounded by two membranes, suggesting they developed directly from endosymbiotic cyanobacteria. In all other groups, plastids are surrounded by three or four membranes,. However, the relationships between the red algae, green algae and glaucophytes are unclear,[2] in large part due to limited study of the glaucophytes.
The glaucophytes are of interest to biologists studying the development of chloroplasts, because they may be similar to the original alga type which led to green plants and red algae (although not all studies find this).[1][3]
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