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Our Project

Marimo in the lake

Chiba University iGEM07 team's project is to make a Marimo-ish bacteria. Marimo is a green spherical shaped algae, which is a popular living organism in Japan as a National Monument. When you come to Japan, you absolutely come across to Marimo in Aquarisms, TV programs or Mangas :)

About Marimo

Marimoの学名は Aegagropila linnaeiである. The popular name "Marimo" was named by Japanese botanist T.Kawakami in 1898.

マリモのつくり

Actually, the name "marimo" indicates the algae filament, not the sphere. The sphere shape is one of the three growth forms of the aggregated marimos. (For further information, see here.) The spherical marimo is known to be constructed in following mechanisms:

1. The filaments forms a sphere shape around the 土，砂などのcore.
2. As the sphere become big, the inside of the sphere dies because of the innability of photosynthesis which leads to a hollow in the sphere.
3. The sphere is smashed up because of the inner hole. A several segmentalized marimo filaments group will be born.
4. Those segments became the next generation marimo's core, which resluts in non-core spherical marimo.
5. Go back to no.2.

（わかりにくいので後ほど絵をつけようと思っています）

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References

• Yoshio Sakai, Marimo no Kagaku, 北海道大学図書刊行会, 1991