''Reclinomonas'' is a

monotypic genus 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 "unispe ...

jakobid Jakobids are an order of free-living, heterotrophic, flagellar eukaryotes in the supergroup Excavata. They are small (less than 15 μm), and can be found in aerobic and anaerobic environments. The order Jakobida, believed to be monophyletic, consi ...

eukaryote Eukaryotes () are organisms whose cells have a nucleus. All animals, plants, fungi, and many unicellular organisms, are Eukaryotes. They belong to the group of organisms Eukaryota or Eukarya, which is one of the three domains of life. Bact ...

s containing the single species ''Reclinomonas americana''.Simpson, A. 2008
''Reclinomonas'' Flavin & Nerad 1993. ''Reclinomonas americana'' Flavin & Nerad 1993.
Version 05. The Tree of Life Web Project. This organism is a single cell up to 12 micrometers wide. It has two

flagella A flagellum (; ) is a hairlike appendage that protrudes from certain plant and animal sperm cells, and from a wide range of microorganisms to provide motility. Many protists with flagella are termed as flagellates. A microorganism may have f ...

. The cell is in a cup-like lorica which has a stem that attaches to a surface. When the cell reproduces, by undergoing

binary fission Binary may refer to: Science and technology Mathematics * Binary number, a representation of numbers using only two digits (0 and 1) * Binary function, a function that takes two arguments * Binary operation, a mathematical operation that ta ...

, one of the two newly split cells produces a new lorica for itself. This protozoan can be found in

freshwater Fresh water or freshwater is any naturally occurring liquid or frozen water containing low concentrations of dissolved salts and other total dissolved solids. Although the term specifically excludes seawater and brackish water, it does in ...

. This species was the first jakobid to have its

mitochondrial genome Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA or mDNA) is the DNA located in mitochondria, cellular organelles within eukaryotic cells that convert chemical energy from food into a form that cells can use, such as adenosine triphosphate (ATP). Mitochondrial D ...

sequenced. It contains 97

gene In biology, the word gene (from , ; "... Wilhelm Johannsen coined the word gene to describe the Mendelian units of heredity..." meaning ''generation'' or ''birth'' or ''gender'') can have several different meanings. The Mendelian gene is a b ...

s, 62 of them code for proteins.Berg, J. M., et al.
Biochemistry.
' Edition 6. Macmillan. 2010. pg. 505. Other jakobids have been sequenced since, and the data were similar. It has been described as a member of the

Excavata Excavata is a major supergroup of unicellular organisms belonging to the domain Eukaryota. It was first suggested by Simpson and Patterson in 1999 and introduced by Thomas Cavalier-Smith in 2002 as a formal taxon. It contains a variety of free ...

. ''R. Americana'' is a large protozoan that ingests bacteria. Such phagocytosis is thought to be how ancestral (two billion years ago) eucaryotes (true nucleus to hold DNA) acquired mitochondrial and chloroplast organelles to perform oxidative metabolism and photosynthesis. ''R. Americana'' has played a significant role in understanding the scope of antiquity of what bacterial DNA was captured because its mitochondrial DNA collection is more complete than that of other eukaryotes, which have discarded many and various genes.

References

Jakobids Excavata genera Monotypic eukaryote genera {{Excavata-stub