Filasterea is a proposed basal

Filozoa The Filozoa are a monophyletic grouping within the Opisthokonta. They include animals and their nearest unicellular relatives (those organisms which are more closely related to animals than to fungi or Mesomycetozoa). Three groups are currentl ...

n clade that includes ''

Ministeria ''Ministeria'' is a genus of Filasterea. The species can be found in the North Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and ...

'' and ''

Capsaspora ''Capsaspora'' is a monotypic genus 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 multicellularity, as o ...

''. It is a sister clade to the Choanozoa in which the Choanoflagellatea and

Animal Animals are multicellular, eukaryotic organisms in the Kingdom (biology), biological kingdom Animalia. With few exceptions, animals Heterotroph, consume organic material, Cellular respiration#Aerobic respiration, breathe oxygen, are Motilit ...

s appeared. Originally proposed by Shalchian-Tabrizi et al. in 2008, based on a phylogenomic analysis with dozens of genes. Filasterea was found to be the sister-group to the clade composed of Metazoa and Choanoflagellata within the Opisthokonta, a finding that has been further corroborated with additional, more taxon-rich, phylogenetic analyses.

Etymology

From Latin ''filum'' meaning "thread" and Greek ''aster'' meaning "star", it indicates the main morphological features shared by all their integrants: small, rounded amoeboids with a mononucleated cellular body, covered in long and radiating cell protrusions known as filopodia. These filopodia may be involved in substrate adhesion and capture of prey.

Applications

There are currently cultures from two filasterean species: ''Capsaspora owczarzaki'' and ''Ministeria vibrans'', the first isolated from within a fresh-water snail, the second a marine, free-living bacteriovore. The complete genome sequence of ''C. owczarzaki'' has been obtained and the genome sequence of ''M. vibrans'' is being sequenced. Comparative analyses have shown that Filasterea are key to unravel the genetic repertoire of the unicellular ancestor of animals and to provide insights into the origin of Metazoa.

Metabarcoding Metabarcoding is the barcoding of DNA/ RNA (or eDNA/ eRNA) in a manner that allows for the simultaneous identification of many taxa within the same sample. The main difference between barcoding and metabarcoding is that metabarcoding does ...

analyses of 18S ribosomal RNA in marine environments have failed to recover other filasterean representatives, suggesting this clade may not be especially abundant in natural ecosystems.

Taxonomy

* Class Filasterea Shalchian-Tabrizi et al. 2008 ** Order Ministeriida Cavalier-Smith 1997 *** Family

Ministeriidae ''Ministeria'' is a genus of Filasterea. The species can be found in the North Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and ...

Cavalier-Smith 2008 **** Genus ''

'' Patterson et al. 1993 ***** ''

Ministeria marisola ''Ministeria'' is a genus of Filasterea. The species can be found in the North Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and ...

'' Patterson et al. 1993 ***** ''

Ministeria vibrans ''Ministeria vibrans'' is a bacterivorous amoeba with filopodia that was originally described to be suspended by a flagellum-like stalk attached to the substrate. Molecular and experimental work later on demonstrated the stalk is indeed a flagella ...

'' Tong 1997 *** Family

Capsasporidae ''Capsaspora'' is a monotypic genus 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 multicellularity, as o ...

Cavalier-Smith 2008 **** Genus ''

'' Hertel et al. 2002 ***** ''

Capsaspora owczarzaki ''Capsaspora'' is a monotypic genus 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 multicellularity, as o ...

'' Hertel et al. 2002 **** Genus '' Pigoraptor'' Tikhonenkov et al. 2017 ***** '' Pigoraptor chileana'' Tikhonenkov et al. 2017 ***** '' Pigoraptor vietnamica'' Tikhonenkov et al. 2017 In some research Capsaspora is found to be more closely related to Choanozoa than Ministeria.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q853084 Opisthokont classes Monotypic eukaryote classes