Although both Astasia longa and Euglena gracilis belong to different genera, they share many morphological characters except that A. longa has no chloroplast. In the 1940’s, on the basis of the finding that in darkne...Although both Astasia longa and Euglena gracilis belong to different genera, they share many morphological characters except that A. longa has no chloroplast. In the 1940’s, on the basis of the finding that in darkness or upon addition of some chemicals, E. gracilis would fade reversibly or irreversibly, some scholars hypothesised that A. longa evolved from E. gracilis by losing chloroplast. The authors’ use of RAPD and cladistic analyses in a study on the evolutionary relationship between A .longa and E. gracilis showed that the A. longa ’s relationship with E. gracilis was closer than that with other green euglenoids. This proves the hypothesis that A. longa evolved from E. gracilis is reasonable. The results of this study suggest that saprophytic colorless euglenoids were transformed from green euglenoids by losing their choroplasts.展开更多
文摘Although both Astasia longa and Euglena gracilis belong to different genera, they share many morphological characters except that A. longa has no chloroplast. In the 1940’s, on the basis of the finding that in darkness or upon addition of some chemicals, E. gracilis would fade reversibly or irreversibly, some scholars hypothesised that A. longa evolved from E. gracilis by losing chloroplast. The authors’ use of RAPD and cladistic analyses in a study on the evolutionary relationship between A .longa and E. gracilis showed that the A. longa ’s relationship with E. gracilis was closer than that with other green euglenoids. This proves the hypothesis that A. longa evolved from E. gracilis is reasonable. The results of this study suggest that saprophytic colorless euglenoids were transformed from green euglenoids by losing their choroplasts.
