BIOL 211 Lecture Notes - Lecture 19: Cell Membrane, Unikont, Plasmodium
Document Summary
All eukaryotes except for plants, animals and fungi. The deepest (oldest) nodes of eukaryote phylogeny are not well resolved. Defined by a clear synapomorphy: plastids derived from primary endosymbiosis. All members of this clade use chlorophyll a (chl a) as their main photosynthetic pigment (like cyanobacteria) Four main groups: red algae, green algae , land plants, and glaucophytes (sister taxon to the rest of archaeplastida) This clade is best defined by dna sequence data. Some have a feeding groove on one side of the cell; this indentation is the reason they are called excavates . Diplomonads and parabasalids are sister taxa; both members lack plastids and have very reduced mitochondria. Diplomonads contain reduced mitochondria called mitosomes that don"t function in respiration at all and no longer contain any dna: many are parasitic (giardia lamblia: can live in the human small intestine and cause diarrhea)
