A molecular perspective on the phylogeny of amoeboid protists

Abstract

The origin of amoeboid protists is one of the greatest enigmas of eukaryotic phylogeny. Although it has long been accepted that amoeboid protists are polyphyletic, the lack of molecular data for many amoeboid taxa impeded their placement in the tree of life. We have sequenced the small‐subunit ribosomal RNA and actin genes from a broad taxonomic sampling of amoeboid protists, including three lineages of heliozoans (Actinophryida, Desmothoracida, and Taxopodida) and one lineage of radiolarians (Phaeodarea) for which no molecular data were available yet. Phylogenetic analyses of our data show that (1) all lobose amoebae sequenced to date belong to the recently defined phylum Amoebozoa and (2) Heliozoa and Radiolaria both represent polyphyletic assemblages, as suggested by previous ultrastructural studies. However, although axopodia evolved at least five times independently during the evolution of eukaryotes, our study also reveals that most protists possessing filopodia, reticulopodia, and/or axopodia are closely related, and constitute a new supergroup of amoeboid protists, the Rhizaria.