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- Astasia is a colorless euglenoid that does
not have plastids or a light-sensing eyespot. Like Euglena,
Astasia can undergo the drastic changes and undulations
in form known as metaboly. The cells have a single emergent flagellum
and numerous paramylon starch storage granules.
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- Over time, Astasia
has lost its plastids and photosynthetic abilities, but has retained
significant portions of chloroplast DNA. The fact that these
genes remain in non-photosynthetic cells suggests that they are
somehow essential to cellular function.
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