Euglena Lab Report

The purpose of this report is to investigate the following observations; Euglena is a unicellular organism in the kingdom of Protista, the cells are both autotrophic and heterotrophic which means if there is no food source but there is a light source they will fall on their autotroph tendencies through photosynthesis while if there is a food source but no true light source they will fall on their heterotroph tendencies. Euglenas show positive photo-taxis due to their ability to preform photosynthesis; this unicellular flagellate uses its “eye” to gravitate towards its best chance of being able to be autotrophic. As we observed the microscopic bacteria under several different microscopes, it was clear to see that Euglena does not have a cell wall, although it can be classified as coccus, as it moves it moves in a wavelike formation. We took a photograph of the cell with a microscope with a camera on it, as we looked at the picture, we could see the obvious coccus cells and the eye was very visible. Knowing these facts, I am curious as to how the eye works …show more content…
We stored the samples of the bacteria with a steady light source in a consistently cool temperature which will allow us to keep a consistent environment. Each different colored light bulb gives off different wavelengths which is what will be the difference in the results. An experiment was set up to examine the independent variables, which are the colors of light, temperature and pH, the dependent variable of our experiment is the motility of the Euglena cells, the positive control is white light while the negative control is when there is no intentional light shined on the bacteria; we cannot keep all light off of the sample. We hope to be able to observe which direction the Euglena migrates towards by doing this, we will repeat each separate color three times in order to determine if our results are legit or