image: Photomicrograph showing an asexual Volvox carteri with ~2,000 small cells at the surface and ~16 large asexual, reproductive cells deeper in the sphere. The reproductive cells in this individual just have started with the embryonic cell divisions. Up to 99 percent of the volume of an adult Volvox spheroid is Extracellular Matrix. This image relates to an article that appeared in the July 9, 2010, issue of Science, published by AAAS. The study, by Dr. S.E. Prochnik of the DOE Joint Genome Institute in Walnut Creek, Calif., and colleagues, is titled, "Genomic Analysis of Organismal Complexity in the Multicellular Green Alga Volvox carteri." view more
Credit: Image courtesy of Armin Hallmann