Search

The amoebae and amoeboid protists form a large and diverse assemblage of eukaryotes characterized by various types of pseudopodia. For convenience, the traditional morphology-based classification grouped them together in a macrotaxon named Sarcodina. Molecular phylogenies contributed to the dismantlement of this assemblage, placing the majority of sarcodinids into two new supergroups: Amoebozoa and Rhizaria. In this review, we describe the taxonomic composition of both supergroups and present their small subunit rDNA-based phylogeny. We comment on the advantages and weaknesses of these phylogenies and emphasize the necessity of taxon-rich multigene datasets to resolve phylogenetic relationships within Amoebozoa and Rhizaria. We show the importance of environmental sequencing as a way of increasing taxon sampling in these supergroups. Finally, we highlight the interest of Amoebozoa and Rhizaria for understanding eukaryotic evolution and suggest that resolving their phylogenies will be among the main challenges for future phylogenomic analyses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An understanding of large-scale eukaryotic evolution is beginning to crystallise, as molecular and morphological data demonstrate that eukaryotes fall into six major groups. However, there are several taxa of which the affinities are yet to be resolved, and for which there are only either molecular or morphological data. One of these is the amoeboid flagellate Mastigamoeba invertens. This organism was originally misidentified and studied as a pelobiont using molecular data. We present its first light microscopical and ultrastructural characterisation. We demonstrate that it does not show affinities to the amoebozoan pelobionts, because unlike the pelobionts, it has a double basal body and two flagellar roots, a classical Golgi stack, and a large branching double membrane-bound organelle. Phylogenetic analyses of small subunit ribosomal RNA suggest an affinity with the apusomonads, when a covariotide correction for rate heterogeneity is used. We suggest that previous molecular results have been subject to artefacts from an insufficient correction for rate heterogeneity. We propose a new name for the taxon, Breviata anathema; and the unranked, apomorphy-based name “Breviates” for Breviata and its close relatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This revision of the classification of unicellular eukaryotes updates that of Levine et al. (1980) for the protozoa and expands it to include other protists. Whereas the previous revision was primarily to incorporate the results of ultrastructural studies, this revision incorporates results from both ultrastructural research since 1980 and molecular phylogenetic studies. We propose a scheme that is based on nameless ranked systematics. The vocabulary of the taxonomy is updated, particularly to clarify the naming of groups that have been repositioned. We recognize six clusters of eukaryotes that may represent the basic groupings similar to traditional “kingdoms.” The multicellular lineages emerged from within monophyletic protist lineages: animals and fungi from Opisthokonta, plants from Archaeplastida, and brown algae from Stramenopiles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]