Paracercomonas

Paracercomonas is a genus of wild flagellates. It was separated in 2006 from the genus Cercomonas. They occur in soil and water.

Features

The unicellular flagellates are moving with a very flexible body. They form different shaped pseudopodia, including branched filopodia at any point of the cell. During the movement of the cells contact the ground. The anterior flagellum performs slow, rowing movements, the rear is rather passively dragged along.

Some species have a complex life cycle, which includes multinucleated plasmodia and cysts. The mitochondria have cristae in the form of rounded tubules.

From the closely related genera Cercomonas and Eocercomonas they differ by the presence of cartwheels at both centrioles and molecular genetic characteristics.

System

The genus Paracercomonas was separated in 2006 from the genus Cercomonas. It is along with some undescribed species the sister group of the pair Cercomonas and Eocercomonas:

Clade A1 = Cercomonas

Clade A2 = Eocercomonas

Clade B1 = Paracercomonas

Two unnamed Cercomonaden

The genus includes the following species:

• Paracercomonas marina
• Paracercomonas ekelundi
• Paracercomonas Metabolica

Documents

• Serguei A. Karpov, David Bass, Alexander P. Mylnikov, Thomas Cavalier- Smith: Molecular Phylogeny of Cercomonadidae and Kinetid Patterns of Cercomonas and Eocercomonas Gen. nov. ( Cercomonadida, Cercozoa ). Protist, Volume 157, 2006, pp. 125-158, doi: 10.1016/j.protis.2006.01.001

• Cercozoa (Taxon )
• Cercozoa