Unikont

Unikonts
Orange elephant ear sponge, Agelas clathrodes, in foreground. Two corals in the background: a sea fan, Iciligorgia schrammi, and a sea rod, Plexaurella nutans.
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
(Unranked)	Unikonta
Supergroups
Opisthokonta Amoebozoa

Unikonts are members of the Unikonta, a taxonomic group proposed by Thomas Cavalier-Smith.^[1][2]

It includes amoebozoa, opisthokonts,^[3][4] and possibly Apusozoa.^[5]

Clade

The group includes eukaryotic cells that, for the most part, have a single emergent flagellum, or are amoebae with no flagella. The unikonts include opisthokonts (animals, fungi, and related forms) and Amoebozoa. By contrast other well-known eukaryotic groups, which more often have two emergent flagella (although there are many exceptions) are often referred to as bikonts. Bikonts include Archaeplastida (plants and relatives), Excavata, Rhizaria, and Chromalveolata.

Characteristics

The unikonts have a triple-gene fusion that is lacking in the bikonts. The three genes that are fused together in the unikonts, but not bacteria or bikonts, encode enzymes for synthesis of the pyrimidine nucleotides: carbamoyl phosphate synthase, dihydroorotase, aspartate carbamoyltransferase. This must have involved a double fusion, a rare pair of events, supporting the shared ancestry of Opisthokonta and Amoebozoa.

Cavalier-Smith ^[1] originally proposed that unikonts ancestrally had a single flagellum and single basal body. This is unlikely, however, as flagellated opisthokonts, as well as some flagellated Amoebozoa, including Breviata, actually have two basal bodies, as in typical 'bikonts' (even though only one is flagellated in most unikonts). This paired arrangement can also be seen in the organization of centrioles in typical animal cells. In spite of the name of the group, the common ancestor of all 'unikonts' was probably a cell with two basal bodies.

References

External links

• Tree of Life Eukaryotes