''Parvularia atlantis'' is a filopodiated amoeba which was isolated from a lake in

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...

and deposited in the American Type Culture Collection ( ATCC) under the name ''Nuclearia sp.'' ATCC 50694 on 1997 by TK Sawyer. It was classified under the genus ''

Nuclearia ''Nuclearia'' is a nucleariid Nucleariida is a group of amoebae with filose pseudopods, known mostly from soils and freshwater. They are distinguished from the superficially similar vampyrellids mainly by having mitochondria with discoid c ...

'' and morphologically resembles to ''Nuclearia'' species, although it is smaller (the diameter of the cell body measures approximately 4 µm compared to Nuclearia species, which range between 9-60 µm). Later it was determined that it phylogenetically belongs to a new nucleariid lineage., distantly related to ''Nuclearia'' and ''

Fonticula ''Fonticula'' is a genus of cellular slime mold which forms a fruiting body in a volcano shape. As long ago as 1979 it has been known to not have a close relationship with either the Dictyosteliida or the Acrasidae, the two well-established gro ...

'' genera –the other two previously described nucleriid genera–. Thus, ''Parvularia atlantis'' emerged as a new genus and a new species at the onset of

Holomycota Holomycota or Nucletmycea are a basal Opisthokont clade as sister of the Holozoa. It consists of the Cristidiscoidea and the kingdom Fungi. The position of nucleariids, unicellular free-living phagotrophic amoebae, as the earliest lineage of Hol ...

, which contain a set of phylogenetic and morphological characteristics that make this species unique. ''P. atlantis'' feeds on rod-shaped bacteria and present uni- or bi- nucleated cells. During its life cycle, ''P. atlantis'' can form spherical cystic cells which contain an embedded extracellular coat. ''P. atlantis'' is not the first case in which a

filopodia Filopodia (singular filopodium) are slender cytoplasmic projections that extend beyond the leading edge of lamellipodia in migrating cells. Within the lamellipodium, actin ribs are known as ''microspikes'', and when they extend beyond the lame ...

ted amoeba was misassigned to the Nuclearia genera. The amoeba ''

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 ...

'' was previously described as well as a Nuclearia, until phylogenetic approaches placed ''

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 ...

'' outside Holomycota, within

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 ...

ns. Its transcriptomic data is already available

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q43497440 Nucleariids Amoeboids Protists described in 2017