A specialized cell found in nitrogen-fixing filamentous or colonial cyanobacteria. Heterocysts are enlarged cells with thick cell walls and they lack chlorophyll, giving them a colourless appearance. They are the site of nitrogen fixation, for which they produce the enzyme nitrogenase. The lack of photosynthetic activity (which would produce oxygen), together with the thick cell wall, maintain the anoxic conditions in heterocysts that are essential for the activity of nitrogenase. Heterocysts are connected by plasmodesmata to neighbouring cells, on which they depend for nutrients.