Chemical Ecology of Foraminifera

Foraminifera play an important role in the global biogeochemical cycles of inorganic and organic compounds, which makes them one of the most significant of marine and marginal marine taxa (Lipps, 1983; Anderson, 1988; Lee and Anderson, 1991). The hardtests of foraminifera are preserved long after they die and can be studied in the fossil record. Therefore, foraminifera are often perceived more as a subject of geology and paleontology than of cell biology and zoology, and both paleontologists and zoologists have devoted more attention to the study of foraminiferal shells than the living specimens; ironically, however, molecular mechanisms of shell formation are unknown. Systematics and paleontology of foraminifera are studied in more detail than their biology, ecology, and ecotoxicology. The cytophysiology, biochemistry, molecular biology, and chemical ecology of foraminifera are particularly poorly understood.