Excavate

Excavates
Giardia lamblia, a parasitic diplomonad
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
(unranked)	Bikonta
Kingdom:	Excavata (Cavalier-Smith) Simpson, 2003
Phyla
Euglenozoa Percolozoa Loukozoa Metamonada

The excavates are a major kingdom of unicellular eukaryotes, often known as Excavata. The phylogenetic category Excavata, proposed by Cavalier-Smith in 2002, contains a variety of free-living and symbiotic forms, and also includes some important parasites of humans.

Characteristics

Many excavates lack 'classical' mitochondria - these organisms are often referred to as 'amitochondriate', although most, perhaps all, retain a mitochondrial organelle in greatly modified form. Others have mitochondria with tubular, discoidal, or in some cases, laminar cristae. Most excavates have two, four, or more flagella and many have a conspicuous ventral feeding groove with a characteristic ultrastructure, supported by microtubules. However, various groups that lack these traits may be considered excavates based on genetic evidence (primarily phylogenetic trees of molecular sequences).

The closest that the excavates come to multicellularity are the Acrasidae slime molds. Like other cellular slime molds, they live most of their life as single cells, but will sometimes assemble into a larger cluster.

Subgroups

See also: Eukaryote#Phylogeny

Excavates are classified into six major subgroups at the phylum/class level. These are shown in the table below.

Superphylum	Phylum/Class	Representative genera	Description
Discoba or JEH	Euglenozoa	e.g. Euglena, Trypanosoma	Many important parasites, one large group with plastids (chloroplasts)
	Heterolobosea (Percolozoa)	e.g. Naegleria, Acrasis	Most alternate between flagellate and amoeboid forms
	Jakobea	e.g. Jakoba, Reclinomonas	Free-living, sometimes loricate flagellates, with very gene-rich mitochondrial genomes
Metamonada or POD	Preaxostyla	e.g. Oxymonads, Trimastix	Amitochondriate flagellates, either free-living (Trimastix) or living in the hindguts of insects
	Fornicata	e.g. Giardia, Carpediemonas	Amitochondriate, mostly symbiotes and parasites of animals.
	Parabasalia	e.g. Trichomonas	Amitochondriate flagellates, generally intestinal commensals of insects. Some human pathogens.

Discoba or JEH clade

Euglenozoa and Heterolobosea (Percolozoa) appear to be particularly close relatives, and are united by the presence of discoid cristae within the mitochondria (Superphylum Discicristata). More recently a close relationship has been shown between Discicristata and Jakobida, the latter having tubular cristae like most other protists, and hence were united under the taxon name Discoba which was proposed for this apparently monophyletic group.

Metamonads

Metamonads are unusual in having lost classical mitochondria—instead they have 'hydrogenosomes', 'mitosomes' or uncharacterised organelles.

Monophyly

Excavate relationships are still uncertain; it is possible that they are not a monophyletic group. The monophyly of the excavates is far from clear, although it seems like there are several clades within the excavates which are monophyletic.

Certain excavates are often considered among the most primitive eukaryotes, based partly on their placement in many evolutionary trees. This could encourage proposals that excavates are a paraphyletic grade that includes the ancestors of other living eukaryotes. However, the placement of certain excavates as 'early branches' may be an analysis artifact caused by long branch attraction, as has been seen with some other groups, for example, microsporidia.

Malawimonas

In addition to the groups mentioned in the table above, the genus Malawimonas is generally considered to be a member of Excavata owing to its typical excavate morphology, and phylogenetic affinity to excavate groups in some molecular phylogenies. However, its position among excavates remains elusive^{[citation needed]}.

External links

• Tree of Life Eukaryotes
• Tree of Life: Jakobida
• Tree of Life: Fornicata

Template:Excavata Template:Protozoal diseases