Porphyridium purpureum

Porphyridium purpureum is a species of red algae in the family Porphyridiophyceae. Porphyridium cruentum is considered a heterotypic synonym of P. purpureum by AlgaeBase following Drew.^[1]

Porphyridium purpureum
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Clade:	Archaeplastida
Division:	Rhodophyta
Class:	Porphyridiophyceae
Order:	Porphyridiales
Family:	Porphyridiaceae
Genus:	Porphyridium
Species:	P. purpureum
Binomial name
Porphyridium purpureum (Bory) K.M.Drew & R.Ross. 1965
Synonyms
Phytoconis purpurea Bory 1797 Merrettia purpurea (Bory) Trevisan 1848 Rhodella purpureum (Bory) B.F.Zheng & J.Li 2009 Heterotypic "Tremella cruenta" Smith 1807 Olivia cruenta (Smith) S. F. Gray 1821 Porphyridium cruentum (S.F.Gray) Nägeli 1849 Chaos sanguinarius Bory ex Desmazières 1823 Sarcoderma sanguineum Ehrenberg 1930 Porphyridium marinum Kylin 1937

The microalga Porphyridium sp. is a potential source for several products like fatty acids, lipids, cell-wall polysaccharides and pigments . The polysaccharides of this species are sulfated and their structure gives rise to some unique properties that could lead to a broad range of industrial and pharmaceutical applications. Additionally, P. cruentum biomass contains carbohydrates of up to 57% have been reported. Thus, the combined amount of carbohydrates in biomass and exopolysaccharides of this microalga could potentially provide the source for bio-fuel and pharmaceutical.^[2] This alga contains phycoerythrin that can be extracted by lyse and chromatography.^[3]

Porphyridium purpureum is used as a model species for Rhodophyta. Remarkably, bacterial plasmids can replicate in its cell nucleus unchanged: the bacterial origin of replication "just works". This could explain the extensive presence of bacterial genes acquired through horizontal gene transfer in Rhodophyta.^[4]