opisthokont
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English[edit]
Etymology[edit]
Borrowed from Ancient Greek οπίσθω- (opísthō-, “hind-”) + κοντός (kontós, “pole”) (in reference to the flagellum).
Pronunciation[edit]
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ɒˈpɪsθəʊ̆kɒnt/
Noun[edit]
opisthokont (plural opisthokonts)
- (biology) Any of very many eukaryotes, including animals and fungi, whose flagellate cells (if any) propel themselves with a single posterior flagellum.
- 2002: Michael Breitenbach, Reto Crameri, and Samuel B. Lehrer, Fungal Allergy and Pathogenicity, p211 (Karger Medical and Scientific Publishers; →ISBN (10), →ISBN (13))
- Based on a single posterior flagellum (opisthokont), flattened, nondiscoid mitochondrial cristae, a chitinous exoskeleton, storage of glycogen instead of starch, lack of chloroplasts, and the code UGA for tryptophan, not chain termination, in their mitochondria, Cavalier-Smith [54] suggests a common origin of the true fungi with animalia and choanoflagellate protozoa (fig. 1).
- 2004: Joel Cracraft & Michael J. Donoghue, Assembling the Tree of Life, p68 (Oxford University Press (USA); →ISBN (10), →ISBN (13))
- However, these characters are only sporadically found among the various opisthokont allies (described above).
- 2006: Laura Katz Olson & Debashish Bhattacharya, Genomics and Evolution of Microbial Eukaryotes, p13 (Oxford University Press; →ISBN (10), →ISBN (13))
- Although the group embraces taxa that are diverse in morphology and life history, cells of undisputed opisthokonts have a single emergent flagellum which projects behind the cells while they swim. This is treated as defining the opisthokont ancestry.
- 2002: Michael Breitenbach, Reto Crameri, and Samuel B. Lehrer, Fungal Allergy and Pathogenicity, p211 (Karger Medical and Scientific Publishers; →ISBN (10), →ISBN (13))