Anaeramoeba is a genus of anaerobic

protists A protist ( ) or protoctist is any Eukaryote, eukaryotic organism that is not an animal, Embryophyte, land plant, or fungus. Protists do not form a Clade, natural group, or clade, but are a Paraphyly, paraphyletic grouping of all descendants o ...

of uncertain

phylogenetic In biology, phylogenetics () is the study of the evolutionary history of life using observable characteristics of organisms (or genes), which is known as phylogenetic inference. It infers the relationship among organisms based on empirical dat ...

position, first described in 2016.

Description

As the name implies, ''Anaeramoeba'' are anaerobic amoeboid organisms which form a fan-like shape similar to that of '' Flamella''. At least two species can also sometimes assume

flagellate A flagellate is a cell or organism with one or more whip-like appendages called flagella. The word ''flagellate'' also describes a particular construction (or level of organization) characteristic of many prokaryotes and eukaryotes and the ...

forms; with either two or four flagella. They contain double-membrane bound organelles called hydrogenosomes, assumed to be derived from

mitochondria A mitochondrion () is an organelle found in the cells of most eukaryotes, such as animals, plants and fungi. Mitochondria have a double membrane structure and use aerobic respiration to generate adenosine triphosphate (ATP), which is us ...

, usually associated with colonies of unidentified, rod-shaped

bacteria Bacteria (; : bacterium) are ubiquitous, mostly free-living organisms often consisting of one Cell (biology), biological cell. They constitute a large domain (biology), domain of Prokaryote, prokaryotic microorganisms. Typically a few micr ...

Discovery and classification

''Anaeramoeba'' specimens were first isolated in 2016, from samples shallow water anoxic ocean sediments collected from around the world. Despite the similarities to ''Flamella'' in both morphology and environment, genetic analyses found that ''Anaeramoeba'' do not belong within

Amoebozoa Amoebozoa is a major Taxonomy (biology), taxonomic group containing about 2,400 described species of Amoeba, amoeboid protists, often possessing blunt, fingerlike, Pseudopod#Morphology, lobose pseudopods and tubular mitochondrial cristae. In trad ...

. The precise phylogenetic position was not identified with strong support, and the genus may represent a newly identified, deep-branching group of protists. Recent classifications have listed them as sister to Parabasalia in Metamonada.

References

Metamonad genera Anaerobes Amoeboids Metamonads {{Eukaryote-stub