Euglena are actually animal-like, how they swirl through the water and hunt. Despite these animal-like features, they belong to the algae. All euglena have rod shaped chloroplasts, just like plants, to trap sunlight for the process of photosynthesis, and are therefore autotrophic. Euglena even so absorb nutritients from their environment as a survival technique, when favourable light conditions are decreasing - which make them heterotrophic at the same time. As a result, it's all in the mix: they are considered to be mixotrophs, soaking up sunlight by day, hunting at night.
Euglena use their very flexible body to shrink and stretch, as can be seen in the movie of Euglena gracilis. Their flexibility and mobility make them excellent hunters. Sometimes a flagellum can be seen through the microscope. This is a kind of thin tail-like structure, the motordrive for euglena for locomotion (swimming or floating) in aquatic environments.
Euglena detect light by use of a stigma, the red eyespot at the anterior end. Euglena are therefore able to find bright areas for photosynthesis, due to the eyespot filtering waves of light. In low moisture conditions, euglena shield themselves by creating a protective wall around their bodies. They lie waiting dormant untill better opportunities arise. Excellent survivors!
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| Phacus longicauda var. tortus |
Some species of euglena inspired researchers for providing a possible solution to global warming. Euglena gracilis can grow in conditions of 40% carbon dioxide. It is known that their photosynthetic capability is 60-fold of that of rice plants. Even so, they convert carbon dioxode to oxygen in a very short time scale. Next to this, euglena can withstand acidic conditions which would be most harmful to most micro-organisms. These resilient and versatile features might eventually result in human developments in climate efficiency, health and toxicology.
Literature
Microbewiki (2011) Euglena gracilis
http://microbewiki.kenyon.edu/index.php/Euglena_gracilis
Wołowski K & František H (2005) Atlas of Euglenophytes, VEDA Publishing House of the Slovak Academy of Science
The movie and photograph were taken with Olympus IX 70, DP72 and cellSens Dimension at 300x-600x magnification oil. Photographs: Marta Demarteau/Aquon.
