A new type of mutant ofEuglena which produces permanently bleached progeny by darkness

Summary A new type of mutant ofEuglena gracilis strain Z was isolated. In the light-grown culture, it contains 5–20% of bleached cells which have irreversibly lost the ability of chloroplast formation. When once grown in the dark, differing from the case with the wild type, it segregates only bleached cells, probably due to the inability of the replication of proplastids in darkness. Cell multiplication under the inhibition of chlorophyll synthesis or photosynthesis in the light also produces bleached cells.