Cutosea () is a small group of marine

amoeboid An amoeba (; less commonly spelled ameba or amœba; : amoebas (less commonly, amebas) or amoebae (amebae) ), often called an amoeboid, is a type of cell or unicellular organism with the ability to alter its shape, primarily by extending and r ...

protist A protist ( ) or protoctist is any eukaryotic organism that is not an animal, land plant, or fungus. Protists do not form a natural group, or clade, but are a paraphyletic grouping of all descendants of the last eukaryotic common ancest ...

s proposed in 2016. It is a monotypic class of

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 ...

containing the order Squamocutida (). Cutosean organisms are characterized by a cell coat of microscales separated from the

cell membrane The cell membrane (also known as the plasma membrane or cytoplasmic membrane, and historically referred to as the plasmalemma) is a biological membrane that separates and protects the interior of a cell from the outside environment (the extr ...

. Four

genera Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family as used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In binomial nomenclature, the genus name forms the first part of the binomial s ...

, '' Armaparvus'', '' Idionectes'', '' Sapocribrum'' and '' Squamamoeba'', belong to this group, distributed in three

families Family (from ) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictability, structure, and safety as ...

Characteristics

The cells of cutosean

amoebae An amoeba (; less commonly spelled ameba or amœba; : amoebas (less commonly, amebas) or amoebae (amebae) ), often called an amoeboid, is a type of cell or unicellular organism with the ability to alter its shape, primarily by extending and r ...

are surrounded by a continuous thin, somewhat flexible envelope, unique in structure because it is not attached to the

cytoplasmic membrane The cell membrane (also known as the plasma membrane or cytoplasmic membrane, and historically referred to as the plasmalemma) is a biological membrane that separates and protects the cytoplasm, interior of a Cell (biology), cell from the extrac ...

. Below this envelope, they present oval microscales surrounded by a dense matrix. The small scales are not visible under a

light microscope The optical microscope, also referred to as a light microscope, is a type of microscope that commonly uses visible spectrum, visible light and a system of lens (optics), lenses to generate magnified images of small objects. Optical microscopes ...

. The envelope is penetrated by one or many small pores, which allow sub

pseudopodia A pseudopod or pseudopodium (: pseudopods or pseudopodia) is a temporary arm-like projection of a eukaryotic cell membrane that is emerged in the direction of movement. Filled with cytoplasm, pseudopodia primarily consist of actin filaments and ...

to occasionally protrude from the cell membrane, for a very slow locomotion. Locomoting cells are flattened, oval or round in shape. All of their cells lack

cilia The cilium (: cilia; ; in Medieval Latin and in anatomy, ''cilium'') is a short hair-like membrane protrusion from many types of eukaryotic cell. (Cilia are absent in bacteria and archaea.) The cilium has the shape of a slender threadlike proj ...

centrosome In cell biology, the centrosome (Latin centrum 'center' + Greek sōma 'body') (archaically cytocentre) is an organelle that serves as the main microtubule organizing center (MTOC) of the animal cell, as well as a regulator of cell-cycle progre ...

s, except for the uniciliate swarm cells of the amoeboflagellate '' Idionectes''.

Taxonomy

History

Cutosea is a

clade In biology, a clade (), also known as a Monophyly, monophyletic group or natural group, is a group of organisms that is composed of a common ancestor and all of its descendants. Clades are the fundamental unit of cladistics, a modern approach t ...

discovered through a 2016

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 ...

study by

Thomas Cavalier-Smith Thomas (Tom) Cavalier-Smith, FRS, FRSC, NERC Professorial Fellow (21 October 1942 – 19 March 2021), was a professor of evolutionary biology in the Department of Zoology, at the University of Oxford. His research has led to discov ...

and his coauthors, published in the journal ''

Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution ''Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution'' is a peer-reviewed scientific journal of evolutionary biology and phylogenetics. The journal is edited by E.A. Zimmer. Indexing The journal is indexed in: * EMBiology *Journal Citation Reports *Scopus ...

''. It is described as a

class Class, Classes, or The Class may refer to: Common uses not otherwise categorized * Class (biology), a taxonomic rank * Class (knowledge representation), a collection of individuals or objects * Class (philosophy), an analytical concept used d ...

-level

rank A rank is a position in a hierarchy. It can be formally recognized—for example, cardinal, chief executive officer, general, professor—or unofficial. People Formal ranks * Academic rank * Corporate title * Diplomatic rank * Hierarchy ...

monotypic In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group (taxon) that contains only one immediately subordinate taxon. A monotypic species is one that does not include subspecies or smaller, infraspecific taxa. In the case of genera, the term "unisp ...

as it contains only one order Squamamoebida. Additionally, it is grouped under the monotypic superclass Cutosa. In traditional rank-based classifications, it is grouped within the

paraphyletic Paraphyly is a taxonomic term describing a grouping that consists of the grouping's last common ancestor and some but not all of its descendant lineages. The grouping is said to be paraphyletic ''with respect to'' the excluded subgroups. In co ...

Lobosa, a subphylum of Amoebozoa that also contains Tubulinea and

Discosea Discosea is a class of Amoebozoa, consisting of naked amoebae with a flattened, discoid body shape. Members of the group do not produce tubular or subcylindrical pseudopodia, like amoebae of the class Tubulinea. When a discosean is in motion, a ...

. Cutosean amoebae present a structurally unique cellular envelope, their distinguishing feature. Their names derive from the

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

''cutis'', meaning 'skin', and ''squama'', meaning 'scale', referencing this envelope. The Cutosea clade is supported by posterior

molecular A molecule is a group of two or more atoms that are held together by attractive forces known as chemical bonds; depending on context, the term may or may not include ions that satisfy this criterion. In quantum physics, organic chemistry, ...

and morphological studies, and has been accepted as of 2019 by the International Society of Protistologists, which revises the modern

cladistic Cladistics ( ; from Ancient Greek 'branch') is an approach to biological classification in which organisms are categorized in groups ("clades") based on hypotheses of most recent common ancestry. The evidence for hypothesized relationships is ...

classification of

eukaryote The eukaryotes ( ) constitute the Domain (biology), domain of Eukaryota or Eukarya, organisms whose Cell (biology), cells have a membrane-bound cell nucleus, nucleus. All animals, plants, Fungus, fungi, seaweeds, and many unicellular organisms ...

s. The first

to be grouped within Cutosea were ''Sapocribrum'' and ''Squamamoeba'', discovered in 2015 and 2013 respectively, and placed in separate families Sapocribridae and Squamamoebidae. A third genus was discovered later in 2018, ''Armaparvus'', which was added to Squamamoebidae. The fourth genus, ''Idionectes'' was discovered by Sebastian Hess and Alastair G. B. Simpson in 2019.

Classification

Cutosea contains a total of four

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

, distributed in four monotypic genera: * Family Idionectidae ** '' Idionectes'' *** '' Idionectes vortex'' * Family Sapocribridae ** '' Sapocribrum'' *** '' Sapocribrum chincoteaguense'' * Family Squamamoebidae ** '' Armaparvus'' *** '' Armaparvus languidus'' ** '' Squamamoeba'' *** '' Squamamoeba japonica''

Evolution

Cutosea is a fully supported

within

. It is the

sister group In phylogenetics, a sister group or sister taxon, also called an adelphotaxon, comprises the closest relative(s) of another given unit in an evolutionary tree. Definition The expression is most easily illustrated by a cladogram: Taxon A and ...

to Conosa, which contains all the non- lobose amoebozoans: Variosea, Archamoebea and

Eumycetozoa Eumycetozoa (), or true slime molds, is a diverse group of protists that behave as slime molds and develop fruiting bodies, either as sorocarps or as sporocarp (fungi), sporocarps. It is a monophyletic group or clade within the phylum Amoebozoa t ...

. Together, Cutosea and Conosa are the two members of the larger clade Evosea. The following

cladogram A cladogram (from Greek language, Greek ''clados'' "branch" and ''gramma'' "character") is a diagram used in cladistics to show relations among organisms. A cladogram is not, however, an Phylogenetic tree, evolutionary tree because it does not s ...

is based on a 2022

phylogenetic analysis 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 data ...

References

External links

Cutosea
at UniEuk Taxonomy App. {{Taxonbar, from1=Q27043396, from2=Q29560321 Taxa described in 2016 Amoebozoa classes Taxa named by Thomas Cavalier-Smith Amoebozoa