Slime mold that forms a volcano-shaped fruiting body
Fonticula
Macro photograph of an F. alba colony radius growing on a plate.
Scientific classification
Domain:
Eukaryota
(unranked):
Opisthokonta
(unranked):
Holomycota
Class:
Cristidiscoidea
Order:
Fonticulida
Family:
Fonticulaceae
Genus:
Fonticula
Worley, Raper & Hohl 1979
Type species
Fonticula alba
O’Kelly & Nerad 1999
Species
F. alba
Fonticula is a genus of cellular slime mold which forms a fruiting body in a volcano shape.[1] 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 groups of cellular slime molds.[2] In 1979, Fonticula was made a new genus of its own due to the unique characteristics of its fruiting body, with only one species: Fonticula alba.[2]
The life cycle of Fonticula alba alternates between an amoeboid vegetative stage and aggregative fruiting stage. The fruiting body of the genus has a unique shape, as its sorocarp resembles a volcano and sorus looks like a ball of hot lava emerging from that volcano.
Molecular phylogenies have found alignments in genes of Fonticula alba to subgroups in Opisthokonta. A 2009 study has found that Fonticula is the sister taxa to Nuclearia, thus making it related to the kingdom Fungi.
Fonticula, Nuclearia, and Fungi have been united into the Holomycota, which is sister to the Holozoa.
^Mary C. Deasey and Lindsay S. Olive (31 July 1981), "Role of Golgi Apparatus in Sorogenesis by the Cellular Slime Mold Fonticula alba", Science, 213 (4507): 561–563, Bibcode:1981Sci...213..561D, doi:10.1126/science.213.4507.561, PMID 17794844
^ abCite error: The named reference Worley was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
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...
Cristidiscoidea or Nucleariae is a proposed basal holomycota clade in which Fonticula and Nucleariida emerged, as sister of the fungi. Since it is close to...
(Fungus-like) Fungi Includes: chytrids (flagellated, zoosporic fungi) Fonticula (more recent work considers this to be part of Cristidiscoidea, a sister...
rounded bodies and radiating pseudopodia. According to a 2009 paper, Fonticula, a cellular slime mold, is an opisthokont and more closely related to...
lifestyle, the slime molds (mycetozoans, plasmodiophorids, acrasids, Fonticula and labyrinthulids, now in Amoebozoa, Rhizaria, Excavata, Opisthokonta...
1981). "Role of Golgi Apparatus in Sorogenesis by the Cellular Slime Mold Fonticula alba". Science. 213 (4507): 561–563. Bibcode:1981Sci...213..561D. doi:10...
L.S.Olive, 1970 Incertae sedis Eumycetozoa: Copromyxa, Copromyxella, Fonticula However, studies in the 2000s decade disproved this hypothesis. Both morphological...
belongs to a new nucleariid lineage., distantly related to Nuclearia and Fonticula genera – the other two previously described nucleriid genera. Thus, Parvularia...
Alveolata, Sorodiplophrys in Stramenopiles, Guttulinopsis in Rhizaria, and Fonticula alba within the opisthokonts). The transition from an amoeboid filopodial...
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