''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 Jakobida is an order (sole order in the class Jakobea) of free-living, heterotrophic, flagellar eukaryotes in the clade Discoba. They are small (less than 15 μm), and can be found in aerobic and anaerobic environments. The order Jakobida, b ...

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 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 (; : 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 ...

. 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 values (0 and 1) for each digit * Binary function, a function that takes two arguments * Binary operation, a mathematical o ...

, 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. The term excludes seawater and brackish water, but it does include non-salty mi ...

. This species was the first jakobid to have its

mitochondrial genome Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA and mDNA) is the DNA located in the mitochondria organelles in a eukaryotic cell that converts chemical energy from food into adenosine triphosphate (ATP). Mitochondrial DNA is a small portion of the DNA contained in ...

sequenced. It contains 97

gene In biology, the word gene has two meanings. The Mendelian gene is a basic unit of heredity. The molecular gene is a sequence of nucleotides in DNA that is transcribed to produce a functional RNA. There are two types of molecular genes: protei ...

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 an obsolete, extensive and diverse paraphyletic group of unicellular Eukaryota. The group was first suggested by Simpson and Patterson in 1999 and the name latinized and assigned a rank by Thomas Cavalier-Smith in 2002. It contains ...

. ''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.

Species

* ''R. americana'' Flavin & Nerad 1993 * ''R. campanula'' (Penard 1921) Flavin & Nerad 1993

References

Jakobids Discoba genera Monotypic eukaryote genera Taxa described in 1993 {{Excavata-stub