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Euglena is a genus of single cell flagellate eukaryotes. It is the best known and most widely studied member of the class Euglenoidea, a diverse group containing some 54 genera and at least 200 species. [1] [2] Species of Euglena are found in fresh water and salt water.
They are classified in the phylum Euglenophyta, class Euglenida or Euglenoidea. Euglenids are commonly found in fresh water, especially when it is rich in organic materials, but they have a few marine and endosymbiotic members. Many euglenids feed by phagocytosis, or strictly by diffusion.
Euglena gracilis is a freshwater species of single-celled alga in the genus Euglena. It has secondary chloroplasts , and is a mixotroph able to feed by photosynthesis or phagocytosis . It has a highly flexible cell surface, allowing it to change shape from a thin cell up to 100 μm long to a sphere of approximately 20 μm.
Euglenales consists mostly of freshwater organisms, in contrast to its sister Eutreptiales which is generally marine. Cells have two flagella, but only one is emergent; the other is very short and does not emerge from the cell, so cells appear to have only one flagellum. [3]
Euglenaceae show the most morphological diversity within the class Euglenophyceae. [3] They are mostly single-celled organisms, except for the genus Colacium.They are free-living or sometimes inhabiting the digestive tracts of animals. [1]
Euglena viridis is a freshwater, single cell, mixotroph microalgae bearing a secondary chloroplast. [1] Their chloroplast is bounded by three layers of membrane without a nucleomorph . [ 2 ] Normally, it is 40–65 μm long, slightly bigger than other well-known Euglena species: Euglena gracilis .
Euglena, Trypanosoma: Many important parasites, one large group with plastids (chloroplasts) Heterolobosea (Percolozoa) Naegleria, Acrasis: Most alternate between flagellate and amoeboid forms Jakobea: Jakoba, Reclinomonas: Free-living, sometimes loricate flagellates, with very gene-rich mitochondrial genomes Metamonada or POD: Preaxostyla
Some species are endosymbionts of marine animals and other protists, and play an important part in the biology of coral reefs. Others predate other protozoa, and a few forms are parasitic. Many dinoflagellates are mixotrophic and could also be classified as phytoplankton. The toxic dinoflagellate Dinophysis acuta acquire chloroplasts from its prey.