Phagomyxids are a group of obligate endoparasitic

protists A protist () is any eukaryotic organism (that is, an organism whose cells contain a cell nucleus) that is not an animal, plant, or fungus. While it is likely that protists share a common ancestor (the last eukaryotic common ancestor), the excl ...

belonging to the subphylum

Endomyxa Endomyxa is a subphylum of Rhizaria The Rhizaria are an ill-defined but species-rich supergroup of mostly unicellular eukaryotes. Except for the Chlorarachniophytes and three species in the genus Paulinella in the phylum Cercozoa, they are a ...

Cercozoa Cercozoa is a phylum of diverse single-celled eukaryotes. They lack shared morphological characteristics at the microscopic level, and are instead defined by molecular phylogenies of rRNA and actin or polyubiquitin. They were the first major eu ...

. Taxonomically, they are united under a single family Phagomyxidae, order Phagomyxida, sister to the

plasmodiophore The plasmodiophores (also known as plasmophorids or plasmodiophorids) are a group of obligate endoparasitic protists belonging to the subphylum Endomyxa in Cercozoa. Taxonomically, they are united under a single family Plasmodiophoridae, order ...

Ecology

Phagomyxids are mainly parasites of

brown algae Brown algae (singular: alga), comprising the class Phaeophyceae, are a large group of multicellular algae, including many seaweeds located in colder waters within the Northern Hemisphere. Brown algae are the major seaweeds of the temperate and po ...

, but some can parasite

oomycetes Oomycota forms a distinct phylogenetic lineage of fungus-like eukaryotic microorganisms, called oomycetes (). They are filamentous and heterotrophic, and can reproduce both sexually and asexually. Sexual reproduction of an oospore is the result ...

Taxonomy

The group was created in 1993 by

Cavalier-Smith Thomas (Tom) Cavalier-Smith, FRS, FRSC, NERC Professorial Fellow (21 October 1942 – 19 March 2021), was a professor of evolutionary biology in the Department of Zoology, at the University of Oxford. His research has led to disc ...

, when it contained only the genus '' Phagomyxa''. Since then, ''

Maullinia ''Maullinia'' is a genus of intracellular, protistan parasites that infect brown algae (Phaeophyceae). Distribution ''Maullinia'' has been found in brown macroalgae across the Southern Hemisphere, including Chile, the Falkland Islands, Australia ...

'', a genus previously in Plasmodiophoridae, has joined the phagomyxids. * '' Phagomyxa'' * ''

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q21223249 Cercozoa families Cercozoa orders Endomyxa