A heterotypic synonym of Chroococcales is (order)
Prochlorales , with type genus "
Prochloron". Additional names of the same nature included: • Division Prochlorophyta Lewin, 1976 • Class Prochlorophyceae Lewin, 1977 • Family Prochloraceae Lewin, 1977 • Chloroxybacteria Margulis & Schwartz, 1982 • Subdivision Prochlorobacteria Jeffrey 1982 • Division Prochlorophycota Shameel 2008 The assignment as a division/subdivision was based on a belief that because this class lack red and blue
phycobilin pigments and have stacked thylakoids, they are so distinct from typical
cyanobacteria as to warrant a high rank. The four taxa with "Lewin 1977" became
validly published names under the
ICNP in 1986, as the revised version , by virtue of being published in
Int. J. Syst. Bacteriol. with a description.
Ecology They are an important component of
photosynthetic picoplankton. These oligotrophic organisms are abundant in nutrient poor tropical waters and use a unique photosynthetic pigment, divinyl-chlorophyll, to absorb light and acquire energy. and off the coast of Mexico (
Prochloron). Prochlorophyta was soon assigned as a new algal sub-class in 1976 by
Ralph A. Lewin of the
Scripps Institution of Oceanography. Other phytoplankton that lacked
phycobilin pigments were later found in freshwater lakes in the Netherlands by Tineke Burger-Wiersma and colleagues and were termed
Prochlorothrix (additional reading on
Prochlorothrix can be found in a journal article by A.V. Pinevich ). In 1986
Prochlorococcus was found by
Sallie W. (Penny) Chisholm and colleagues.
Prochlorococcus may be responsible for a significant portion of the global primary production.
Morphology Prochlorophytes are very small microbes generally between 0.2 and 2 μm (
photosynthetic picoplankton). They morphologically resemble
Cyanobacteria (formerly known as
Blue Green Algae). Members of Prochlorophyta have been found as coccoid (spherical) (
Coccus) shaped, as in
Prochlorococcus, and as filaments, as in
Prochlorothrix. ==References==