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I. Gebeshuber, R.M. Crawford:
"Harmony of beauty and expediency";
Science First Hand - A good journal for inquisitive people, 5 (2006), 10; 30 - 36.

Remaining together through forming colonies (lower organisms) or tissues (higher organisms) or becoming dispersed as the need arises is one of the fundamental principles of biological existence.
Having taken the evolutionary step of developing a rigid cell wall of two parts, an epitheca and a hypotheca surrounding a polarised cell, the diatom cells were, with very few exceptions, denied any choice in the manner in which they could remain together.
The only method available to them was to form chains if the cells remained attached to each other following cell division ...

http://aleph.ub.tuwien.ac.at/F?base=tuw01&func=find-c&ccl_term=AC05938327