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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.
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.
A drawing of a prokaryotic cell. There are two fundamental classifications of cells: prokaryotic and eukaryotic. Prokaryotic cells are distinguished from eukaryotic cells by the absence of a cell nucleus or other membrane-bound organelle. [10] Prokaryotic cells are much smaller than eukaryotic cells, making them the smallest form of life. [11]
The red eyespot of a euglena filters light for the photoreceptor so that only certain wavelengths of light are able to reach the photoreceptor, allowing the euglena to “steer” itself by moving toward light in different intensities in different areas of its photoreceptor. Key: 1. Microtubules that make up the pellicle (see 9.) 2.
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]
Later, various biologists described additional characteristics for Euglena and established different classification systems for euglenids based on nutrition modes, the presence and number of flagella, and the degree of metaboly.
Most prokaryotes (bacteria and archaea) are unable to sense the direction of light, because at such a small scale it is very difficult to make a detector that can distinguish a single light direction. Still, prokaryotes can measure light intensity and move in a light-intensity gradient.
The prokaryotic cytoskeleton is the collective name for all structural filaments in prokaryotes. It was once thought that prokaryotic cells did not possess cytoskeletons, but advances in imaging technology and structure determination have shown the presence of filaments in these cells. [9]