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Spiral pellicle strips. Euglena lacks a cell wall. Instead, it has a pellicle made up of a protein layer supported by a substructure of microtubules, arranged in strips spiraling around the cell. The action of these pellicle strips sliding over one another, known as metaboly, gives Euglena its exceptional flexibility and contractility. [19]
Euglenoids are distinguished mainly by the presence of a type of cell covering called a pellicle. Within its taxon, the pellicle is one of the euglenoids' most diverse morphological features. [7] The pellicle is composed of proteinaceous strips underneath the cell membrane, supported by dorsal and ventral microtubules. This varies from rigid to ...
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.
As with other euglenids, cells in the Euglenaceae are surrounded by a series of proteinaceous strips called the pellicle; the pellicle can stretch in most genera, allowing the cell to contract, creating a type of movement called metaboly.
The pellicle gives shape to the cell, especially during locomotion. Pellicles of protozoan organisms vary from flexible and elastic to fairly rigid. In ciliates and Apicomplexa, the pellicle includes a layer of closely packed vesicles called alveoli. In euglenids, the pellicle is formed from protein strips arranged spirally along the length of ...
The cell is spindle or cigar-shaped, somewhat pointed at the anterior end. It has a pellicle with parallel finely-ridged proteinaceous strips underlain by microtubules arranged in a helical fashion around the body. With this type of pellicle, which is shared by many euglenids, the spiraling microtubular strips are able to slide past one another ...
In particular, members of Spirocuta share a synapomorphy, or unique trait: their high number of strips (between 16 and 56) confers the cells with an immense flexibility, allowing them to actively stretch and deform. [1] This process is known as metaboly or euglenid motion. [6] [3] Euglena, moving by metaboly and swimming
Schematic representation of a Euglena cell with red eyespot (9) Schematic representation of a Chlamydomonas cell with chloroplast eyespot (4). The eyespot apparatus (or stigma) is a photoreceptive organelle found in the flagellate or (motile) cells of green algae and other unicellular photosynthetic organisms such as euglenids.