''Acrocoelus'' is a

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

alveolate The alveolates (meaning "pitted like a honeycomb") are a group of protists, considered a major unranked clade or superphylum within Eukaryota. They are currently grouped with the Stramenopiles and Rhizaria among the protists with tubulocristate ...

History

This genus was named in 1999 by Fernández and collaborators.Fernández I, Pardos F, Benito J, Arroyo NL (1999) ''Acrocoelus glossobalani'' ''gen''. ''nov''. ''et sp''. ''nov''., a protistan flagellate from the gut of the enteropneust ''Glossabalanus minutus''. European Journal of Protistology 35 (1) 55–65

Description

The species in this genus are fusiform with an apical anterior concavity and a longitudinal groove. There are two anterior

flagella A flagellum (; : flagella) (Latin for 'whip' or 'scourge') is a hair-like appendage that protrudes from certain plant and animal sperm cells, from fungal spores ( zoospores), and from a wide range of microorganisms to provide motility. Many pr ...

e directed backward. The flagellae arise from parallel

basal bodies A basal body (synonymous with basal granule, kinetosome, and in older cytological literature with blepharoplast) is a protein structure found at the base of a eukaryotic undulipodium (cilium or flagellum). The basal body was named by Theodor ...

in a flagellar pocket. The single

nucleus Nucleus (: nuclei) is a Latin word for the seed inside a fruit. It most often refers to: *Atomic nucleus, the very dense central region of an atom *Cell nucleus, a central organelle of a eukaryotic cell, containing most of the cell's DNA Nucleu ...

has a single

nucleolus The nucleolus (; : nucleoli ) is the largest structure in the cell nucleus, nucleus of eukaryote, eukaryotic cell (biology), cells. It is best known as the site of ribosome biogenesis. The nucleolus also participates in the formation of signa ...

. The cell wall is a trilaminate pellicle with subpellicular

microtubule Microtubules are polymers of tubulin that form part of the cytoskeleton and provide structure and shape to eukaryotic cells. Microtubules can be as long as 50 micrometres, as wide as 23 to 27 nanometer, nm and have an inner diameter bet ...

s and a

micropore A microporous material is a material containing pores with typical sizes less than 2 nm in diameter. Microporous materials, like mesoporous materials, are a subset of nanoporous materials. Examples of microporous materials include zeolites and ...

. The

cytoplasm The cytoplasm describes all the material within a eukaryotic or prokaryotic cell, enclosed by the cell membrane, including the organelles and excluding the nucleus in eukaryotic cells. The material inside the nucleus of a eukaryotic cell a ...

contains a single, branched

mitochondrion A mitochondrion () is an organelle found in the cell (biology), cells of most eukaryotes, such as animals, plants and fungi. Mitochondria have a double lipid bilayer, membrane structure and use aerobic respiration to generate adenosine tri ...

with tubular cristae, a supranuclear

Golgi apparatus The Golgi apparatus (), also known as the Golgi complex, Golgi body, or simply the Golgi, is an organelle found in most eukaryotic Cell (biology), cells. Part of the endomembrane system in the cytoplasm, it protein targeting, packages proteins ...

and large amounts of glycan granules. There are three types of secretory organelles present. Type I are round and structurally complex. These may be extrusomes. The types II and III appear to be rhoptry and

microneme Micronemes are secretory organelles, possessed by parasitic apicomplexans. Micronemes are located on the apical third of the protozoan body. They are surrounded by a typical unit membrane. On electron microscopy they have an electron-dense ma ...

like organelles respectively.

Taxonomy

The type species is ''Acrocoelus glossobalani'' I.Fernández, Pardos, Jes.Benito & N.L.Arroyo, 1999.

References

External links

{{Taxonbar, from=Q20685834 Apicomplexa genera