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SYNOPTIC DESCRIPTION OF THE PHYLUM CRYPTOMONADA

SYNOPTIC DESCRIPTION OF THE PHYLUM CRYPTOMONADA (MARGULIS AND SCHWARTZ 1998)

EUKARYA> CHROMALVEOLATA> HACROBIAE> CRYPTOMONADA
CRYPTOMONADA LINKS

Introduction

Hierarchical Classification

The description of the phylum comes from Lee (1980), Grell (1976), Kudo (1966), Sze (1986), Lee et al. (1985), Sleigh et al. (1984), Gillott (1990), and Margulis and Schwartz (1988).

I. SYNONYMS: Cryptophyta, cryptomonads.

II. NUMBER: >200 species.

III. PHYLUM CHARACTERISTICS:

  • A. Structure and Physiology:
    • Cell Form: Mainly motile unicells, cell truncate at anterior end; some colonial.
    • Flagella: Two similar flagella, at least one of which bears stiff hairs ( mastigonemes (text with tooltip) Mastigonemes are flagellar hairs. ); both directed anteriorly (text with tooltip) An anteriorly-directed flagellum extends in the direction of the motion of the motile cell. The interpretation is that the flagellum functions by pulling the cell. .
    • Basal Bodies: Parallel (text with tooltip) Basal bodies are parallel when their orientation relative to each other is parallel. and inserted at the base of the gullet.
    • Cell Covering : Complex covering (= pellicle (text with tooltip) A pellicle is a complex outer cellular covering that occurs within the bounds of the plasmalemma. Often synonymous with the term theca, a pellicle defines such groups as the euglenoid-kinetoplastid clade amd the Kingdom Alveolatae. ) of hexagonal proteinaceous plates.
    • Chloroplasts: Extremely variable in color, probably the result of separate endosymbioses (text with tooltip) An endosymbiont is a living cell that has become symbiotic within the host cell. Thus, the endosymbiont and the host become interdependent. Mitochondria and chloroplasts (among others) are common endosymbionts. ; usually with chlorophylls a and c2 (text with tooltip) Chlorophyll C is a variant of Chlorophyll A. and a secondary photosynthetic pigment in the many of the photosynthetic heterokonts and dinoflagellates. , carotene, xanthophylls (text with tooltip) Xanthophyll is an oxygenated carotenoid secondary photosynthetic pigment that occurs in many of the photosynthetic eukaryotes. , and phycobillins.
    • Food Reserves: True starch.
    • Mitochondria: Flattened cristae (text with tooltip) Flat cristae (crista, sing.) are wall-like cristae within certain mitochondria. .
    • Golgi (text with tooltip) Golgi apparatus (also called dictyosome) is an internal membrane system of stacked flattened sacs. They occur in nearly all eukaryotes and are involved in storing and secreting cellular products. : Present.
    • Nucleus: Large, conspicuous and attached to chloroplast outer membrane; cells uninucleate.
    • Centrioles: Absent.
    • Inclusions and Ejectile Organelles:
    • Ribbon-like ejectosomes ( trichocysts (text with tooltip) Trichocysts are extrusosomes that also are characteristic of the ciliates and dinoflagellates. They can discharge and serve almost as an organelle equivalent to the nematocyst. However, their particular functions have yet to be defined to my satisfaction. ) in gullet (text with tooltip) A flagellar pocket is an invagination of the cell within which the flagellar insertions occur. Extensions of the flagellar pocket form the undulating membrane in trypanosomatids. This is sometimes called the reservoir, the crypt, the cytostome (inappropriately), or gullet. and between pellicular plates.
  • B. Mitosis, Meiosis and Life History
    • Mitosis: Nuclear membrane perforated at the poles; spindle external and penetrates nucleus through polar fenestrae; cytokinesis by longitudinal fission.
    • Meiosis: Not reported.
    • Sexual Reproduction and Life History: Not reported; however, cells often produce asexual cysts and palmelloid (text with tooltip) Palmelloid (adj) describes a colonial form in which cells are dispersed in a mucilaginous matrix. stages.
  • C. Ecology: Freshwater and marine; free-living, some endosymbionts; some photosynthetic, phagotrophic, and saprobic.
LITERATURE CITED

Baldauf, S. L. 2003a. The deep roots of eukaryotes. Science. 300 (5626): 1701-1703.

Burki, F., K. Shalchian-Tabrizi, M. Minge, A. Skaeveland, S. I. Nikolaev, K. S. Jakobsen, and J. Pawlowski. 2007. Phylogenomics reshuffles the eukaryotic supergroups. PLoS ONE. 8:790-795.

Burki, F., Y. Inagaki, J. Brate, J. M. Archibald, P. J. Keeling, T. Cavalier-Smith, M. Sakaguchi, T. Hashimoto, A. Horak, S. Kumar, D. Klaveness, K. S. Jakobsen, J. Pawlonski, and K. Shalchian-Tabrizi. 2009. Large-scale phylogenomic analyses reveal thet two enigmatic protist lineages, Telonemia and Centroheliozoa, are related to photosynthetic chromalveolates. Genome. Biol. Evol. 1(1): 231-238.

Gillott, M. 1990. Cryptophyta (cryptomonads). In: Margulis, L., J. O. Corliss, M. Melkonian, and D. J. Chapman, eds. 1990. Handbook of the Protoctista; the structure, cultivation, habits and life histories of the eukaryotic microorganisms and their descendants exclusive of animals, plants and fungi. Jones and Bartlett Publishers. Boston. pp. 139-151.

Grell, K. G. 1973. Protozoology. Springer-Verlag. New York.

Hackett, J. D., H. S. Yoon, S. Li, A. Reyes-Prieto, S. E. Rummele, and D. Bhattacharya. 2007. Phylogenomic analysis supports the monoplyly of Cryptophytes and Haptophytes and the association of Rhizaria with Chromalveolates. Molecular Biology and Evolution. 24(8): 1702-1713.

Keeling P. J. 2004 The diversity and evolutionary history of plastids and their hosts. American Journal of Botany. 91(10): 1481-1493.

Kudo, R.R. 1966. Protozoology. 5th ed. Charles C. Thomas Publisher. Springfield.

Lee, R. E. 1980. Phycology. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge.

Lee, J. J., S. H. Hunter, and E. C. Bovee, eds. 1985. An Illustrated Guide to the Protozoa. Society of Protozoologists. Lawrence, Kansas.

Margulis, L. and K. Schwartz. 1988. Five kingdoms, an illustrated guide to the phyla of life on earth. 2nd Edition. W.H. Freeman and Co. New York.

Margulis, L. and K. Schwartz. 1998. Five kingdoms, an illustrated guide to the phyla of life on earth. 3rd Edition. W. H. Freeman and Company. New York.

Nikolaev, S. I., C. Berney, J. Fahrni, I. Bolivar, S. Polet, A. P. Mylnikov, V. V. Aleshin, N. B. Petrov, and J. Pawlowski. 2004. The twilight of Heliozoa and rise of Rhizaria, an emerging supergroup of amoeboid eukaryotes. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. USA. 101(21): 8066-8071.

Okamoto, N., C. Chantangsi, A. Horak, B. S. Leander, and P. J. Keeling. 2009. Molecular phylogeny and description of the novel katablepharid Roombia truncata gen. et sp. nov., and establishment of the Hacrobia taxon nov. PLoS One 4(9):e7080.

Pfiester, L. A. and J. R. Holt. 1978. A freshwater ‘red tide’ in Texas. The Southwestern Naturalist. 23(1): 103-110.

Sleigh, M.A., J.D. Dodge and D.J. Patterson. 1984. Kingdom Protista. In: Barnes, R.K.S., ed. A Synoptic Classification of Living Organisms. Sinauer Associates, Inc. Sunderland, Mass.

Sze, P. 1986. A Biology of the Algae. Wm. C. Brown Publishers. Dubuque, Iowa.
By Jack R. Holt. Last revised: 03/04/2013
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