Phyllomitus

Phyllomitus
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	incertae sedis
Genus:	Phyllomitus
Species:	P. undulans
Binomial name
Phyllomitus undulans Stein 1878

Phyllomitus is a genus of flagellates of uncertain affinity among eukaryotes.

Taxonomy

Phyllomitus was described by Samuel Friedrich Stein in 1878. Its type and only species, Phyllomitus undulans, is characterized by cells with two flagella that adhere to each other. Over the years, various newly found species of flagellates were assigned to this genus, but none had the distinctive trait of adherent flagella, and their assignment was put into question. As a result, all species of this genus except the type species were separated into distantly related genera across the tree of eukaryotes, namely the stramenopile genus Pseudophyllomitus and the euglenozoan genus Hemistasia.^[1][2]

Phyllomitus undulans is one of many species of flagellates that have not been reported since their original publications, and for which no molecular data is available to verify their evolutionary affinities.^[1][3] Some authors have suggested that it may be a cercozoan of the order Marimonadida, as this order contains the only other genera known to have mutually adhering flagella: Auranticordis and Rhabdamoeba.^[4][5]

References

1. Lee, Won Je (2002). "Redescription of the Rare Heterotrophic Flagellate (Protista) - Phyllomitus undulans Stein, 1878, and Erection of a New Genus - Pseudophyllomitus gen. n." Acta Protozoologica. 41: 375–381.
2. Shiratori, Takashi; Thakur, Rabindra; Ishida, Ken-ichiro (2017). "Pseudophyllomitus vesiculosus (Larsen and Patterson 1990) Lee, 2002, a Poorly Studied Phagotrophic Biflagellate is the First Characterized Member of Stramenopile Environmental Clade MAST-6". Protist. 168 (4): 439–451. doi:10.1016/j.protis.2017.06.004.
3. Adl, Sina M.; Bass, David; Lane, Christopher E.; Lukeš, Julius; Schoch, Conrad L.; et al. (26 September 2018). "Revisions to the Classification, Nomenclature, and Diversity of Eukaryotes". The Journal of Eukaryotic Microbiology. 66 (1): 4–119. doi:10.1111/JEU.12691. PMC 6492006. PMID 30257078.
4. Cavalier-Smith, Thomas (October 2016). "Higher classification and phylogeny of Euglenozoa". European Journal of Protistology. 56: 250–276. doi:10.1016/j.ejop.2016.09.003. PMID 27889663.
5. Tikhonenkov, Denis V.; Gawryluk, Ryan M. R.; Mylnikov, Alexander P.; Keeling, Patrick J. (3 February 2021). "First finding of free-living representatives of Prokinetoplastina and their nuclear and mitochondrial genomes". Scientific Reports. 11 (1) 2946. doi:10.1038/s41598-021-82369-z. ISSN 2045-2322.

External links