''Parvularia atlantis'' is a filopodiated amoeba which was isolated from a lake in

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Georgia (U.S. state), most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the county seat, seat of Fulton County, Georg ...

and deposited in the American Type Culture Collection ( ATCC) under the name ''Nuclearia sp.'' ATCC 50694 on 1997 by TK Sawyer. It was classified under the genus ''

Nuclearia ''Nuclearia'' is a genus of nucleariid amoebae with filose pseudopodia and discoid mitochondrial cristae. Nominal species treated as members of the genus include: * ''Astrodisculus affinis'' Schouteden 1905 * ''Astrodisculus araneiformis'' Sch ...

'' and morphologically resembles to ''Nuclearia'' species, although it is smaller (the diameter of the cell body measures approximately 4 μm compared to Nuclearia species, which range between 9-60 μm). Later it was determined that it

phylogenetically 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 ...

belongs to a new nucleariid lineage, the genus ''Parvularia'', distantly related to ''Nuclearia'' and ''

Fonticula ''Fonticula'' is a genus of cellular slime mold which forms a fruiting body in a volcano shape. As long ago as 1979 it has been known to not have a close relationship with either the Dictyosteliida or the Acrasidae, the two well-established group ...

'' genera – the other two previously described nucleariid genera. Thus, ''Parvularia atlantis'' emerged as a new genus and a new species at the onset of

Holomycota Holomycota or Nucletmycea are a basal Opisthokont clade as sister of the Holozoa. It consists of the Cristidiscoidea and the kingdom Fungi. The position of nucleariids, unicellular free-living phagotrophic amoebae, as the earliest lineage o ...

, which contain a set of phylogenetic and morphological characteristics that make this species unique. ''P. atlantis'' feeds on rod-shaped bacteria and present uni- or bi- nucleated cells. During its life cycle, ''P. atlantis'' can form spherical cystic cells which contain an embedded extracellular coat. ''P. atlantis'' is not the first case in which a

filopodia Filopodia (: filopodium) are slender cytoplasmic projections that extend beyond the leading edge of lamellipodia in migrating cells. Within the lamellipodium, actin ribs are known as ''microspikes'', and when they extend beyond the lamellipod ...

ted amoeba was misassigned to the Nuclearia genera. The amoeba '' Capsaspora owczarzaki'' was previously described as well as a Nuclearia, until phylogenetic approaches placed ''

Capsaspora ''Capsaspora'' is a monotypic genus of protists containing the single species ''Capsaspora owczarzaki. C. owczarzaki'' is a single-celled eukaryote that occupies a key phylogenetic position in our understanding of the origin of animal multicellu ...

'' outside Holomycota, within

Holozoa Holozoa () is a clade of organisms that includes animals and their closest single-celled relatives, but excludes fungi and all other organisms. Together they amount to more than 1.5 million species of purely heterotrophic organisms, including a ...

ns. Its transcriptomic data is already available.

References

{{Taxonbar, from1=Q43501860, from2=Q43497440 Nucleariid genera Taxa described in 2017