The opisthokonts are a broad group of eukaryotes, including both the animal and fungus kingdoms. The opisthokonts, previously called the "Fungi/Metazoa group", are generally recognized as a clade. Opisthokonts together with Apusomonadida and Breviata comprise the larger clade Obazoa.
Cristidiscoidea or Nucleariae is a proposed basal holomycota clade in which Fonticula and Nucleariida emerged, as sister of the fungi. Since it is close to the divergence between the main lineages of fungi and animals, the study of Cristidiscoidea can provide crucial information on the divergent lifestyles of these groups and the evolution of opisthokonts and slime mold multicellularity. The holomycota tree is following Tedersoo et al.
Telonemia is a phylum of microscopic eukaryotes commonly known as telonemids. They are unicellular free-living flagellates with a unique combination of cell structures, including a highly complex cytoskeleton unseen in other eukaryotes.
In biology, a phylum is a level of classification or taxonomic rank below kingdom and above class. Traditionally, in botany the term division has been used instead of phylum, although the International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants accepts the terms as equivalent. Depending on definitions, the animal kingdom Animalia contains about 31 phyla, the plant kingdom Plantae contains about 14 phyla, and the fungus kingdom Fungi contains about 8 phyla. Current research in phylogenetics is uncovering the relationships among phyla within larger clades like Ecdysozoa and Embryophyta.
SAR or Harosa is a highly diverse clade of eukaryotes, often considered a supergroup, that includes stramenopiles (heterokonts), alveolates, and rhizarians. It is a node-based taxon, including all descendants of the three groups' last common ancestor, and comprises most of the now-rejected Chromalveolata. Their sister group has been found to be telonemids, with which they make up the TSAR clade.
Holozoa is a clade of organisms that includes animals and their closest single-celled relatives, but excludes fungi and all other organisms. Together they amount to more than 1.5 million species of purely heterotrophic organisms, including around 300 unicellular species. It consists of various subgroups, namely Metazoa and the protists Choanoflagellata, Filasterea, Pluriformea and Ichthyosporea. Along with fungi and some other groups, Holozoa is part of the Opisthokonta, a supergroup of eukaryotes. Choanofila was previously used as the name for a group similar in composition to Holozoa, but its usage is discouraged now because it excludes animals and is therefore paraphyletic.
Rozella is a fungal genus of obligate endoparasites of a variety of hosts, including Oomycota, Chytridiomycota, and Blastocladiomycota. Rozella was circumscribed by French mycologist Marie Maxime Cornu in 1872. Considered one of the earliest diverging lineages of fungi, the widespread genus contains 27 species, with the most well studied being Rozella allomycis. Rozella is a member of a large clade of fungi referred to as the Cryptomycota/Rozellomycota. While some can be maintained in dual culture with the host, most have not been cultured, but they have been detected, using molecular techniques, in soil samples, and in freshwater and marine ecosystems. Zoospores have been observed, along with cysts, and the cells of some species are attached to diatoms.
Holomycota or Nucletmycea are a basal Opisthokont clade as sister of the Holozoa. It consists of the Cristidiscoidea and the kingdom Fungi. The position of nucleariids, unicellular free-living phagotrophic amoebae, as the earliest lineage of Holomycota suggests that animals and fungi independently acquired complex multicellularity from a common unicellular ancestor and that the osmotrophic lifestyle was originated later in the divergence of this eukaryotic lineage. Opisthosporidians is a recently proposed taxonomic group that includes aphelids, Microsporidia and Cryptomycota, three groups of endoparasites.
Cryptomycota , Rozellida, or Rozellomycota are a clade of micro-organisms that are either fungi or a sister group to fungi. They differ from classical fungi in that they lack chitinous cell walls at any trophic stage in their lifecycle, as reported by Jones and colleagues in 2011. Despite their unconventional feeding habits, chitin has been observed in the inner layer of resting spores, and in immature resting spores for some species of Rozella, as indicated with calcofluor-white stain as well as the presence of a fungal-specific chitin synthase gene.
Aphelida is a phylum of Fungi that appears to be the sister to true fungi.
Cryptista is a clade of alga-like eukaryotes. It is most likely related to Archaeplastida which includes plants and many algae, within the larger group Diaphoretickes.
Aphelidium species are endoparasites of freshwater green algae. Aphelidium belongs to the phylum Aphelida, and is part of the Opisthosporidia, a sister clade to Fungi. The cells of Aphelidium are much smaller than the cells of its green algae host, which is protected by a robust cell wall. Aphelidium have evolved a remarkable life cycle to defeat host's defenses.
Amastigomycota or Eufungi is a clade of fungi. It includes all fungi without flagella or centrioles, and with unstacked Golgi apparatus cisternae. Members of this clade are Dikarya and the traditional paraphyletic assemblage "Zygomycota", now divided into several monophyletic phyla.
Saccharomyceta is a clade of fungi containing Pezizomycotina and Saccharomycotina, or all Ascomycete fungi except Taphrinomycotina according to the 2007 fungal phylogeny "The Mycota: A Comprehensive Treatise on Fungi as Experimental Systems for Basic and Applied Research" and Tedersoo et al. 2018.
Schizosaccharomyceta is a clade of fungi within Taphrinomycotina containing all members of the clade except Neolectomycetes and Taphrinomycetes according to the 2007 fungal phylogeny "The Mycota: A Comprehensive Treatise on Fungi as Experimental Systems for Basic and Applied Research" and Tedersoo et al. 2018. Its members are single-celled and yeast-like and include Pneumocystis and Schizosaccharomycetes and Archaeorhizomycetes
Calcarisporiellaceae is a family of fungi within the subkingdom Mucoromycota. It is the only family in the order Calcarisporiellales, class Calcarisporiellomycetes, subphylum Calcarisporiellomycotina and phylum Calcarisporiellomycota. It contains two known genera, Calcarisporiella and Echinochlamydosporium. The two genera each have one species.
Aphelidium tribonemae is a species within the Aphelid group. Their classification in the kingdom Fungi is a subject of controversy. Some argue for the classification of aphelids as ‘fungal animals', and for a period of time in the 1950s, aphelids were classified as protists due to their amoeboid stage. Recently, molecular phylogenetics placed the aphelids within Opisthosporidia, a super phylum within Opisthokonta. Aphelids have posterior uniflagellate zoospores which place them as Opisthokonts. They are an early diverging lineage in Kingdom Fungi. While the aphelid group only contains three genera, it spans many both freshwater and marine ecosystems.
Mantamonas vickermani is a species of marine heterotrophic flagellates described in 2021. It belongs to the Mantamonadida, a basal eukaryotic lineage within a clade known as CRuMs.
Mantamonas plastica is a species of marine heterotrophic biflagellates described in 2011. It is the type species of the Mantamonadida, a basal eukaryotic lineage within a clade known as CRuMs.
An amoeboflagellate is any eukaryotic organism capable of behaving as an amoeba and as a flagellate at some point during their life cycle. Amoeboflagellates present both pseudopodia and at least one flagellum, often simultaneously.
