Leptomyxa is a free-living genus of lobose naked multinucleate amoebae in the order Leptomyxida that inhabits freshwater, soil and mosses. It is very closely related to the genus Rhizamoeba, and some species have been moved between the two genera due to molecular data.[1]

Leptomyxa
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Phylum: Amoebozoa
Class: Tubulinea
Order: Leptomyxida
Family: Leptomyxidae
Genus: Leptomyxa
Goodey, 1915 emend. Smirnov et al., 2017
Type species
Leptomyxa reticulata
Goodey 1915
Species

See text

Description

edit

Members of this genus have loboreticulopodia: wide and smooth cytoplasmic projections (like lobopodia) that can also connect to each other to form a net-like structure (like reticulopodia).[1] They differ from Rhizamoeba not only on a molecular level but also in their morphology: each Leptomyxa cell has usually up to hundreds of nuclei, while Rhizamoeba cells contain between one and up to dozens of nuclei, and the organization of the cell is plasmodial among Leptomyxa while monopodial among Rhizamoeba.[1]

Classification

edit

As of 2017, nine species belong to this genus.[1][2][3]

  1. Leptomyxa ambigua Smirnov et al. 2017
  2. Leptomyxa arborea Berney, Geisen et Burberg in Smirnov et al. 2017
  3. Leptomyxa australiensis (Chakraborty et Pussard, 1985 as Rhizamoeba) Smirnov et al. 2017
  4. Leptomyxa flabellata Goodey 1915
  5. Leptomyxa fragilis (Penard 1904 as Pelomyxa) Siemensma 1987
  6. Leptomyxa neglecta (Smirnov, Nassonova, Fahrni et Pawlowski, 2009 as Rhizamoeba) Smirnov et al. 2017
  7. Leptomyxa reticulata Goodey 1915 (type species)
  8. Leptomyxa valladaresi Del Valle et al. 2017
  9. Leptomyxa variabilis Geisen et Burberg in Smirnov et al. 2017

References

edit
  1. ^ a b c d Smirnov, Alexey; Nassonova, Elena; Geisen, Stefan; Bonkowski, Michael; Kudryavtsev, Alexander; Berney, Cedric; Glotova, Anna; Bondarenko, Natalya; Dyková, Iva; Mrva, Martin; Fahrni, Jose; Pawlowski, Jan (2017). "Phylogeny and Systematics of Leptomyxid Amoebae (Amoebozoa, Tubulinea, Leptomyxida)". Protist. 168 (2): 220–252. doi:10.1016/j.protis.2016.10.006. ISSN 1434-4610. PMID 28343121.
  2. ^ Del Valle, Alvaro De Obeso Fernandez; Lorenzo-Morales, Jacob; Maciver, Sutherland K. (2017). "Leptomyxa valladaresi n. sp. (Amoebozoa, Tubulinea, Leptomyxida), from Mount Teide, Tenerife, Spain". Experimental Parasitology. 183: 85–91. doi:10.1016/j.exppara.2017.09.017. hdl:20.500.11820/388d40ed-c270-401e-8430-5fdf722b0b67. ISSN 0014-4894. PMID 29042273. S2CID 8368259.
  3. ^ Smirnov, Alexey (2018). "Fine structure of Leptomyxa ambigua n. sp. CCAP 1546/2 strain, formerly known as "Rhizamoeba flabellata" (Amoebozoa, Tubulinea, Leptomyxida)". European Journal of Protistology. 62: 95–100. doi:10.1016/j.ejop.2017.12.001. ISSN 0932-4739. PMID 29316480.