Euglena longa (Pringsheim, 1936), 2003

Lee, Won Je, 2022, Three newly recorded heterotrophic euglenids (Protist), Entosiphon oblongum, Euglena longa and Keelungia pulex from South Korea, Journal of Species Research 11 (2), pp. 89-93 : 90-91

2. Euglena longa (Pringsheim, 1936) Marine and Melkonian, 2003 (Figs. E -G)

Basionym: Astasia longa Pringsheim, 1936

Material examined. Korea, Incheon, Seo-gu, Yeonhuidong, Shimgok-chun , 37°31′37.10″N, 126°39′36.81″E, 25 November 2019, collected by Won Je Lee. Type strain, live cells are kept with the Korean Culture Collection of Protists , Kyungnam University , Korea, reference ‘KF072’. Description. Osmotrophic euglenid. Cells are 32.3-52.2 μm (Avg. 42.2 μm, n = 26) long and elongated; narrowed posteriorly ending into a short tail piece; anteriorly bilabiate. Pellicle is spirally striated. Cytoplasm is slightly granular and have many small oval, paramylum granules, scattered throughout the cell. The nucleus is nearly central. The cells swim with rotation.

The closest sequence retrieved by NCBI BLASTN search was that of 18S rDNA sequence of Euglena longa SAG : 1204-17a (accession number; AJ 532428) with a high identity of 99.31%. The 18S rDNA sequence of the stain is 2,166 bp in length.

Remarks. Based on SSU rDNA analysis, a colorless species, Astasia longa Pringsheim, 1936 formed a clade with phototrophic species ( Eu. gracilis , Eu. clara , Eu. agilis , strain M 1856) and a colorless species, Eu. quartana ( Marin et al., 2003) . Therefore, Astasia longa was transferred to the genus Euglena by Marin et al. (2003). Now the genus Euglena contains at least two secondary heterotrophs ( Eu. longa , Eu. quartana ). Khawkinea is a colorless genus with an eyespot and may have to be completely incorporated in Euglena following further study ( Marin et al., 2003).

Habitat. Freshwater sediment.

World distribution. Canada, Korea.

Deposition. NIBREG0000000194.

NCBI GenBank Accession Number. OM177659.

Identifiers. Won Je Lee.