Abstract
Euglena was first discovered by Antony van Leeuwenhoek in 1675 and is called Midori mushi in Japanese. The name Euglena means beautiful (Eu) eye (glena). Euglena is classified in both the animal and the plant kingdoms. In the animal kingdom Euglena belongs to the Protozoa, whereas in the plant kingdom Euglena belongs to Euglenophyta (Inoki 1981; Yamada et al. 1983). There are more than 60 species belonging to the Euglena genus, of which about 10 are well known (Johnson 1968; Mizuno 1976; Inoki 1981). Euglena is considered as having stable heredity because it has no sex and no reduction division. Cell sizes of Euglena vary from ca. 10μm (E. minuta) to ca. 500μm (E. oxyuris). The cell shape is very variable due to a metabolism called euglenoid movement; being spindle-shaped and spherical, the cells may change their shape under changing conditions. Euglena gracilis, especially strain Z and var. bacillaris, are widely used for investigations in physiology and biochemistry. Euglena gracilis is a unicellular microorganism (ca. 50 μm in length × ca. 10μm in width), which has chloroplasts, mitocondria, and two flagella of different lengths, an eye spot containing carotenoid and flavin, and other organelles such as Golgi bodies. Euglena can move by swimming, or contracting to changing shapes and crawling and sliding; most of the species have a forward rotary movement by swimming spirally. Euglena has the paramylon, ß-1,3-glucan, as one of the storage substances.
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Noma, Y., Asakawa, Y. (1998). Euglena gracilis Z: Biotransformation of Terpenoids and Related Compounds. In: Bajaj, Y.P.S. (eds) Medicinal and Aromatic Plants X. Biotechnology in Agriculture and Forestry, vol 41. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-58833-4_11
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-58833-4_11
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