Blastocrithidia | |
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A species of Blastocrithidia, B. papi (vertical scale bar = 10 μm). [1] | |
Scientific classification ![]() | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Clade: | Discoba |
Phylum: | Euglenozoa |
Class: | Kinetoplastea |
Order: | Trypanosomatida |
Family: | Trypanosomatidae |
Genus: | Blastocrithidia Laird 1959 [2] |
Type species | |
Blastocrithidia gerridis (Patton 1908) Laird 1959 | |
Species | |
See text |
Blastocrithidia is a genus of parasitic flagellate protist belonging to the family Trypanosomatidae. [2] It is a monoxenous parasite of heteropteran insects, [3] mainly inhabiting their hindgut and glands. [4]
In addition to Blastocrithidia, one-host trypanosomatids from hemipteran and dipteran insects have been traditionally placed in genera Crithidia , Leptomonas , Herpetomonas , Rhynchoidomonas , and Wallaceina . [5] [6] Blastocrithidia is characterized by epimastigote morphological forms, whereas opisthomastigotes and endomastigotes are exclusive features of the genera Herpetomonas and Wallaceina, respectively. [6] Blastocrithidia is also able to produce resistant cysts. [7]
The etymology of the genus name Blastocrithidia derives from the two Ancient Greek words βλαστός (blastós), meaning "sprout, scion, child or descendant", and κριθίδιον (krithídion), meaning "small grain of barley". [8] [9]
The genus includes the following species.
Blastocrithidia uses in its nuclear genome an alternative genetic code characterized by all three canonical stop codons reassigned to sense codons. [10]
Genetic code | Translation table | DNA codon | RNA codon | Conditional translation | Standard translation | |||
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Blastocrithidia nuclear | 31 | TAA | UAA | Ter (*) | or | Glu (E) | Ter (*) | |
TAG | UAG | Ter (*) | or | Glu (E) | Ter (*) | |||
TGA | UGA | Trp (W) | Ter (*) |
Amino acids biochemical properties | nonpolar | polar | basic | acidic | Termination: stop codon |