Nodularia is a genus of filamentous nitrogen-fixing cyanobacteria, or blue-green algae. They occur mainly in brackish or salinic waters, such as the hypersaline Makgadikgadi Pans, the Peel-Harvey Estuary in Western Australia or the Baltic Sea. Nodularia cells occasionally form heavy algal blooms. Some strains produce a cyanotoxin called nodularin R, which is harmful to humans. The type species for the genus is Nodularia spumigena Mertens ex Bornet & Flahault, 1886.

Morphology

Nodularia may form solitary filaments or groups of filaments. They reproduce by the formation of hormogonia, filament breakage, and by akinetes.

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