A large, transparent, thick-walled cell found in the filaments of certain blue-green algae and in certain fungi.
Example sentencesExamples
Nitrification cannot occur in the presence of oxygen, so nitrogen is fixed in specialized cells called heterocysts.
In the 1970s, purified heterocysts from this strain were used to demonstrate that they are the sites of aerobic nitrogen fixation.
In the case of fixed nitrogen deprivation the bacteria will produce heterocysts at regular intervals, usually around ten cells apart, along the filament.
During growth the number of vegetative cells is increased by cell division and the space between heterocysts becomes larger.
These heterocysts develop from vegetative cells in a regular pattern along the filament.
Definition of heterocyst in US English:
heterocyst
nounˈhedərəˌsist
A large, transparent, thick-walled cell found in the filaments of certain blue-green algae and in certain fungi.
Example sentencesExamples
In the case of fixed nitrogen deprivation the bacteria will produce heterocysts at regular intervals, usually around ten cells apart, along the filament.
These heterocysts develop from vegetative cells in a regular pattern along the filament.
In the 1970s, purified heterocysts from this strain were used to demonstrate that they are the sites of aerobic nitrogen fixation.
During growth the number of vegetative cells is increased by cell division and the space between heterocysts becomes larger.
Nitrification cannot occur in the presence of oxygen, so nitrogen is fixed in specialized cells called heterocysts.