Supergroup Unikonta  Two subphyla:

 Eukaryotic cells having a single emergent o Subphylum Lobosa/ Lobosea

flagellum, or are amoebae with no flagella
 Includes two clades:
o Amoebozoans
o Opisthokonts (animals, fungi & related protists)
 By contrast other eukaryotic groups, have two
emergent flagella (with many exceptions) are often
referred to as bikonts.
 Bikonts include Archaeplastida (plants &
relatives), Excavate, Rhizaria & Chromalveolata.
Phylum Amoebozoa
o Subphylum Conosa/ Conosea
Subphylum Lobosa
 Naked lobose amoebae
 Traditionally called gymnamoebae
 Cilia or flagella are usually absent
 Two classes:
o Class Tubulinea
 Lobose pseudopodia always cylindrical
or subcylindrical
 Able to alter their pseudopodia from
cylindrical to flattened form
 Uninucleated, many with endosomes;
cells vary from monopodial to
polypodial; some produce cysts
Amoeba proteus

 Move by means of internal cytoplasmic flow

 Pseudopodia are characteristically blunt & finger-
like, called lobopodia
 Most are unicellular, & are common in soils &
aquatic habitats
 Some are symbionts of other organisms, including
several pathogens
o Free-living chemo-organoheterotroph
 Energy is obtained from sugars, fatty
acids & glycerol
 Omnivorous feeder on smaller
microorganisms (bacteria, diatoms, &
other aquatic plants)
 Uses aerobic respiration
 Waste products are excreted by diffusion
 Some may produce shells compose of organic  Non-pathogenic
materials, others are naked.
 Primary mode of nutrition is by phagocytosis
 Most species can form cysts, which may be carried
aerially & introduce to new environments
o In slime moulds, spores are formed on
fruiting bodies or sporangia.
 Most lack flagella
 The mitochondria characteriscally have branching
tubular cristae.
  Uninucleated;
 found in freshwater environment
o
o
o
o
o
o
o Subphylum Conosa
o
o  Some taxa are nonmotile, many produce
flagellated cells
 Flagellar roots with a cone-shaped set of
microtubules associated with the nucleus.
 Includes two large groups (Infraphylum)
o Archamoebae
o Mycetozoa

Infraphylum Archamoebae
 Distinguished by the absence of mitochondria
(amitochondriate).
 Mostly due to parasitism or their life in toxic
o environments.
o Class Discosea
 Flattened pseudopodia, never producing
tubular, subcylindrical pseudopodia or
never both pointed & branched.
 Locomotive from semicircular or fan-
shaped
 Clear layer called hyaloplasm along front
margin
Pelomyxa
Vannella simplex
 Multiple nuclei (two to several thousand)
 With endosymbiotic bacteria
Entamoeba coli
  Gut parasites which is the causative agent of Physarum (plasmodial slime mold)
amebic dysentery  With large reticulate plasmodia spores very dark.

 A parasite in the gut & thus has no

mitochondira
 Cysts are ingested & germinate in the lower
bowel where they feed on the intestinal mucosa
o Can induce large ulcerations leading to  Spore-bearing body with calcareous deposits
bloody stools  Reticulate Plasmodium
o May enter the circulatory system from
which they can begin feeding on other
internal organs, including the barin.
o Cause a chronic diarrhea that leads to
dehydration

Infraphylum Mycetozoa
 The group of the “slime molds”
 Characterized by the ability to form “fruiting
bodies”
 Kinds: plasmodial & cellular

Plasmodial slime molds

Stemonitis
 The trophic amoebae are coenocytic & diploid.
 Swarmers & myxamoebae can become functional  Spores mass very dark
gametes & fuse.  Lime deposits present at the base of the supporting
 Following karyogamy, the cell enlarges as a stalk
diploid plasmodium with thous&s of nuclei
(coenocytic)
 The plasmodium may differentiate to form
sporangia
o Nuclei in the sporangia form resistant spore
walls(sclerotia)
 Meiosis occurs in the spores, but three of the
resulting nuclei abort to form a uninucleate haploid
spore, which upon germination, releases a haplios
trophic amoeba.
 The spores can over winter
 Also, as the plasmodium dries out, parts of it can Cellular slime mold
form a protective covering, called sclerotium.  Single-celled free-living amoebae
 This can survive to grow into another plasmodium o Feeds on bacteria associated with rotten
when conditions improve. wood & other organic matter.
  Asexual cycle
o One or more cells begin to release acrasin
(cyclic AMP) in response to a depletion in
food
o Other cells are attracted to the source of
acrasin, & begin to release more of it
causing up to 100,000 amoebae to
aggregare into a multicellular
pseudoplasmodium.
 Multicellular pseudopodium behaves like a
small slig with a head, tail & a ventral region.
 The new multicellular slug moves to an
appropriate site where it differentiates into
sporangium & encapsulated certain cells as
spores.
 The spored then disperse, germinate as feeding
amoebae, & begin to form their own population
thru mitosis.
Dictyostelium (cellular slime mold)
 Trophic amoebae aggragate to form a
pseudoplasmodium
 Fruiting body composed of stalk cells which
secrete cellulose & cells which encyst to form
spores
 No flagellated stages known.
PHYLUM OPISTHOKONTA
 Greek: opisthios = “posterior” + kontos = pole
i.e. “flagellum
 Common characteristics
 Single posterior flagellum
 Body Structure
 Some species grow as either multicellular
filaments or single cells (yeasts); other grow
as both
 Consist of mycelia, networks of branched
hyphae adapted for absoption
 Most fungi have cell walls made of chitin
 Divided into
 Holomycota
 fungi & all organisms more closely
related to fungi than to animals
 Holozoa
 animals & all organisms more closely
related to animals than to fungi
 Fungi & animals are more closely related to each
other than they are to plants or other eukaryotes
 DNA evidence suggests that fungi are most closely
related to unicellular nucleariids while animals are
most closely related to unicellular
choanoflagellates
Fossil fungal hyphae
& spores from the
Ordovician perios
(~460 mya)
 This suggests that fungi & animals evolved from a
common flagellated unicellular ancestor &
multicellularity arose separately in two groups
 The oldest undisputed fossils of fungi are only
about 460 million years old