Eudorina
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Eudorina | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Eudorina elegans | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| Division: | Chlorophyta |
| Class: | Chlorophyceae |
| Order: | Chlamydomonadales |
| Family: | Volvocaceae |
| Genus: | Eudorina Ehrenberg |
| Type species | |
| Eudorina elegans Ehrenberg[1] | |
| Species | |
Eudorina is a genus of green algae in the family Volvocaceae,[2] containing about seven species. It has a cosmopolitan distribution in freshwater habitats.[3]
Eudorina colonies typically consist of 16, 32 or 64 cells, each of which is similar to Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. These cells are bedded within an extracellular matrix composed of glycoproteins. Colonies are spherical and motile, with motility derived from the flagellated individual cells. Cells are ovoid or spherical, each with two equal flagella.[3] (In one species Eudorina compacta, the cells essentially touch each other, and are strikingly angular due to mutual compression.) [4] There is a single cup-shaped chloroplast with one (basal) or multiple pyrenoids) and a stigma. Multiple contractile vacuoles are scattered throughout the cytoplasm.[3]
Eudorina is facultatively sexual, meaning colonies can reproduce either sexually or asexually.[5] During development, each Chlamydomonas-like cell undergoes several rounds of division to form curved plates called plakeas, which then invert to form daughter colonies before hatching out of the mother colony.[6] Sexual reproduction is anisogamous; cells divide successively and differentiate into sperm packets, or develop into female gametes (without division).[1]
