''Abeoforma whisleri'' is a single-celled eukaryote that belongs to the Ichthyosporea clade, a group of protists closely related to animals. ''A. whisleri'' was isolated from the digestive tract of a marine invertebrate, specifically the filter-feeding mussel ''Mytilus'' sp''.'' ''A. whisleri'' has a very complex life-cycle, yet to be resolved. It includes several different cell stages, ranging from amoeboidal, hyphal-like and plasmodial stages, which can present filopodia-like (pseudopodia) structures. They also present coenocytic spherical stages with prominent vacuoles and several nuclei. All of those stages undergo dramatic morphological changes and have a cell wall (except for the amoeboid stage).

Taxonomy

''A. whisleri'' is a member of the

Ichthyosporea The Mesomycetozoea (or DRIP clade, or Ichthyosporea) are a small group of Opisthokonta in Eukaryote, Eukaryota (formerly protists), mostly parasites of fish and other animals. Significance They are not particularly distinctive morphologically, a ...

clade, within the

Teretosporea Teretosporea are a proposed basal Holozoa clade in which Ichthyosporea and Corallochytrium emerged with the Filozoa as sister clade. Since it is close to the divergence between the main lineages of Fungi and Animals, the study of Teretosporea can ...

, which is the earliest branching

holozoa Holozoa is a group of organisms that includes animals and their closest single-celled relatives, but excludes fungi. ''Holozoa'' is also an old name for the tunicate genus ''Distaplia''.'' Because Holozoa is a clade including all organisms mor ...

n lineage.

Applications

A. whisleri can easily be cultured axenically in marine broth medium. Given its phylogenetic position as a close unicellular relative of animals and its high capacity to modify cell morphology, ''A. whisleri'' could potentially provide important insights both into the origin of multicellular animals and into the control of cell shape in eukaryotes.

References

Mesomycetozoea Species described in 2008 {{Holozoa-stub