Nucleariida is a group of
amoebae[1] with
filosepseudopods, known mostly from soils and freshwater. They are distinguished from the superficially similar
vampyrellids mainly by having
mitochondria with
discoidcristae, in the absence of superficial granules, and in the way they consume food.
Classification
Molecular studies indicate that nucleariids are closely related to fungi.[2][3] and more distantly to the lineage that gave rise to choanoflagellates and metazoa
opisthokonts,[4] the group which includes
animals,
fungi. Some use a broad definition of
Opisthokonta to include all of these organisms with flattened mitochondrial cristae.
The genera Rabdiophrys, Pinaciophora, and Pompholyxophrys, freshwater forms with hollow siliceous scales or spines, were included in Nucleariida by some.[5][6] This was disputed by Smith and Chao who placed them in the
Rhizaria.[7] Their affinity with the nucleariids has been confirmed.[8] Historically, nucleariids were included among the
heliozoa as the
Rotosphaerida because both they and heliozoa had rounded bodies and radiating pseudopodia.
According to a 2009 paper, Fonticula, a cellular
slime mold, is an opisthokont and more closely related to Nuclearia than to fungi.[9]
^Zettler; Nerad, T.; O'Kelly, C.; Sogin, M. (May 2001). "The nucleariid amoebae: more protists at the animal-fungal boundary". The Journal of Eukaryotic Microbiology. 48 (3): 293–297.
doi:
10.1111/j.1550-7408.2001.tb00317.x.
PMID11411837.
S2CID44548329.
^
abYoshida M, Nakayama T, Inouye I (January 2009). "Nuclearia thermophila sp. nov. (Nucleariidae), a new nucleariid species isolated from Yunoko Lake in Nikko (Japan)". European Journal of Protistology. 45 (2): 147–155.
doi:
10.1016/j.ejop.2008.09.004.
PMID19157810.
^Patterson, D. J. 1985. On the organization and affinities of the amoeba, Pompholyxophrys punicea Archer, based on ultrastructural examination of individual cells from wild material. J. Protozool. 32: 241-246
^Patterson, D. J., Simpson, A. G. B. & Rogerson, A. 2002. Amoebae of uncertain affinities In Lee, J.J., Leedale, G.F. and Bradbury, P. (eds) An Illustrated Guide to the Protozoa, 2nd edition, Society of Protozoologists, Lawrence, Kansas. pp. 804-827
^Cavalier-Smith, Thomas; Chao, Ema E. (July 2012). "Oxnerella micra sp. n. (Oxnerellidae fam. n.), a Tiny Naked Centrohelid, and the Diversity and Evolution of Heliozoa". Protist. 163 (4): 574–601.
doi:
10.1016/j.protis.2011.12.005.
PMID22317961.
^Galindo LJ, Torruella G, Moreira D, Eglit Y, Simpson AGB, Völcker E, Clauß S, López-García P. Combined cultivation and single-cell approaches to the phylogenomics of nucleariid amoebae, close relatives of fungi. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 2019 Nov 25;374(1786):20190094. doi: 10.1098/rstb.2019.0094. Epub 2019 Oct 7. PMID 31587649; PMCID: PMC6792443