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What purpose do flagella serve for the volvox?

User Jameskind
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Final answer:

Flagella enable the Volvox colony to move through water environments and are essential for positioning the organism to optimize photosynthesis.

Step-by-step explanation:

The purpose of flagella for the Volvox is to facilitate movement. Volvox is a colonial organism with each individual cell possessing two flagella. These flagella enable the Volvox colony to move through aqueous environments towards light, which is crucial for their photosynthetic activities. The cells of Volvox, specifically the ones with more developed eyespots towards the front of the spherical colony, coordinate their flagellar movements to provide locomotion. This coordination ensures that the colony can efficiently find light and optimize photosynthesis. The presence of flagella in bacteria usually serves a similar purpose for movement but with a different structural configuration, and flagella staining is necessary to observe these tiny structures.

User Sashaank
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