Recent insights into the ultrastructure of diatoms using scanning and transmission electron-microscopy

A group of microalgae known as diatoms that are widely distributed among almost all the water bodies including freshwater, oceans, lakes, rivers, waterways and moist soil, contributes about 50% of the atmosphere's oxygen are of interest due to their extensive applications in biomedicine, pharmaceuticals, toxicity testing, diagnostic procedures, nanotechnology, etc. In this chapter, various diatom species from different sources are characterized and studied by employing electron microscopic approaches. A brief structural overview of several diatom species and their applications are illustrated. Profound structural insight of the diatoms is obtained by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Also, the advantages of using SEM and TEM for structural and morphological characterization studies were particularized in this study.