The members of chlorophyceae are commonly called green algae. The plant body may be unicellular, colonial or filamentous. They are usually grass green due to the dominance of pigments chlorophyll a and b. The pigments are localised in definite chloroplasts. The chloroplasts may be discoid, plate-like, reticulate, cup-shaped, spiral or ribbon-shaped in different species. Most of the members have one or more storage bodies called pyrenoids located in the chloroplasts. Pyrenoids contain protein besides starch. Some algae may store food in the form of oil droplets. Green algae usually have a rigid cell wall made of an inner layer of cellulose and an outer layer of pectose. Vegetative reproduction usually takes place by fragmentation. Asexual reproduction is by flagellated zoospores produced in zoosporangia. The sexual reproduction shows considerable variation in the type and formation of sex cells and it may be isogamous, anisogamous or oogamous. Some commonly found green algae are: Chlamydomonas, Volvox, Ulothrix, Spirogyra and Chara.
NTA tests whether you know that green algae store food as starch in pyrenoids, NOT as mannitol or oil (which brown and red algae use). Students often confuse storage products across algal groups—remember chlorophyceae = starch, phaeophyceae = mannitol. Also note that green algae have chlorophyll a and b in definite chloroplasts of varied shapes, making them grass-green. The key distinction: pyrenoids are starch-storing structures unique to green algae. When comparing algal groups, always match the correct storage compound to the correct class.
This paragraph was tested 2 times in NEET.
Which of the following is incorrectly matched? [NEET 2022 Phase 1]
Which of the following pairs is of unicellular algae?
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