The stichotrichs were a proposed group of

ciliate The ciliates are a group of alveolates characterized by the presence of hair-like organelles called cilia, which are identical in structure to flagellum, eukaryotic flagella, but are in general shorter and present in much larger numbers, with a ...

s, in the class

Spirotrich The spirotrichs are a large and diverse group of ciliate protozoa. They typically have prominent oral cilia in the form of a series of polykinetids, called the adoral zone of membranelles, beginning anterior to the oral cavity and running down ...

ea. In a classification system proposed by

Eugene Small Eugene may refer to: People and fictional characters * Eugene (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters with the given name * Gene Eugene, stage name of Canadian born actor, record producer, engineer, composer and musi ...

and Denis Lynn in 1985, Stichotrichia formed a subclass containing four orders: Stichotrichida, Urostylida, Sporadotrichida and Plagiotomida. Although the group was made up of species traditionally classified among the "

hypotrich The hypotrichs are a group of ciliated protozoa, common in fresh water, salt water, soil and moss. Hypotrichs possess compound ciliary organelles called " cirri," which are made up of thick tufts of cilia, sparsely distributed on the ventral su ...

s"—ciliates possessing compound ciliary

organelle In cell biology, an organelle is a specialized subunit, usually within a cell (biology), cell, that has a specific function. The name ''organelle'' comes from the idea that these structures are parts of cells, as Organ (anatomy), organs are to th ...

s called cirri—it excluded euplotid ciliates such as ''

Euplotes ''Euplotes'' is a genus of ciliates in the subclass Euplotia. Species are widely distributed in marine and freshwater environments, as well as soil and moss. Most members of the genus are free-living, but two species have been recorded as commens ...

'' and ''Diophrys'', which were placed in the subclass

Hypotrichia The hypotrichs are a group of ciliated protozoa, common in fresh water, salt water, soil and moss. Hypotrichs possess compound ciliary organelles called "Cirrus (biology), cirri," which are made up of thick tufts of Cilium, cilia, sparsely dist ...

. In later classifications proposed by Denis Lynn, Stichotrichia omits the order Plagiotomida (species in that group were relocated to the order Stichotrichida). In more recent classifications, members of Stichotrichia, as defined by Small and Lynn., are placed in the subclass

Hypotrich The hypotrichs are a group of ciliated protozoa, common in fresh water, salt water, soil and moss. Hypotrichs possess compound ciliary organelles called " cirri," which are made up of thick tufts of cilia, sparsely distributed on the ventral su ...

ia, and euplotid ciliates are placed in the subclass Euplotia. Like the euplotids, stichotrichs (or hypotrichs, in the sense of Gao et al., 2016) have body

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 ...

fused into cirri, but these are mostly arranged into rows, running along the ventral surface or edges of the cell. Most stichotrichs are flattened and reasonably flexible, although some, such as ''Stylonychia'', have rigid bodies. Characteristic

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 ...

include ''

Stylonychia ''Stylonychia'' is a genus of ciliates, in the subclass Hypotrichia. Species of ''Stylonychia'' are very common in fresh water and soil, and may be found on filamentous algae, surface films, and among particles of sediment. Like other Hypotrichs, ...

'', '' Oxytricha'', '' Uroleptus'' and ''Urostyla''.

Etymology

The term ''stichotrich'' derives from the

ancient greek Ancient Greek (, ; ) includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the classical antiquity, ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Greek ...

(), meaning "row", and , (), meaning 'hair', because of the arrangement into rows of the cilia.

Genomics

The draft macronuclear genome of '' Oxytricha trifallax'' was published in 2013.

References

External links

* Spirotrichea Obsolete eukaryote taxa {{ciliate-stub