Polytomella | |
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Polytomella agilis | |
Scientific classification
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(unranked): | Viridiplantae |
Division: | Chlorophyta |
Class: | Chlorophyceae |
Order: | Chlamydomonadales |
Family: | Dunaliellaceae |
Genus: |
Polytomella Aragão |
Species | |
Polytomella is a genus of green algae in the family Dunaliellaceae. [1] Polytomella is a free-living, flagellated, nonphotosynthetic green alga with a highly reduced, linear fragmented mitochondrial genome. [2] [3] Polytomella, as it exists today, bears evidence of once having a functional photosynthetic plastid which has over evolutionary time changed such that it would appear now to have no genome or gene expressing mechanisms remaining to it. [4] Having transitioned completely to heterotrophy, Polytomella uses organic acids, alcohols and monosaccharides as its carbon source. [3] [5] [6] Despite being an evolutionary descendant of the green algae, Polytomella is a colourless organism because it has lost its photosynthetic ability. [6]
Polytomella | |
---|---|
![]() | |
Polytomella agilis | |
Scientific classification
![]() | |
(unranked): | Viridiplantae |
Division: | Chlorophyta |
Class: | Chlorophyceae |
Order: | Chlamydomonadales |
Family: | Dunaliellaceae |
Genus: |
Polytomella Aragão |
Species | |
Polytomella is a genus of green algae in the family Dunaliellaceae. [1] Polytomella is a free-living, flagellated, nonphotosynthetic green alga with a highly reduced, linear fragmented mitochondrial genome. [2] [3] Polytomella, as it exists today, bears evidence of once having a functional photosynthetic plastid which has over evolutionary time changed such that it would appear now to have no genome or gene expressing mechanisms remaining to it. [4] Having transitioned completely to heterotrophy, Polytomella uses organic acids, alcohols and monosaccharides as its carbon source. [3] [5] [6] Despite being an evolutionary descendant of the green algae, Polytomella is a colourless organism because it has lost its photosynthetic ability. [6]