“To see an example of a specialized structure, let's look at the bright red eyespot on the euglena. Also called a stigma, the eyespot is not actually an eye. It's more like a sunglass for the true photorecptor. That structure is located close to the euglena's flagella, and it's made up of around 50 layers of stacked membranes that hold hexagonal arrangements of roughly a million photoreceptor proteins. The stigma shades the photoreceptor, but just on one side of the euglena. And as the microbe rotates and different wavelengths of light filter through and then get shaded by the stigma, the euglena is actually getting information on where it can find light.”
Journey to the Microcosmos- Can Microbes See Without Eyes?
Images Originally Captured by Jam’s Germs
