What is Amoebozoa?
Q: What is Amoebozoa?
A: Amoebozoa is a eukaryote phylum of amoeba-like protozoa. It is a sister clade to the fungi and animals, and contains about 2,400 described species of amoeboid protists.
Q: How do Amoebozoa move?
A: Most Amoebozoa move by internal cytoplasmic flow, using their finger-like pseudopodia as characteristic features.
Q: What classification scheme does Amoebozoa belong to?
A: In most classification schemes, Amoebozoa is ranked as a phylum in either the kingdom Protista or the kingdom Protozoa. In the classification of the International Society of Protistologists, it is kept as an unranked "supergroup" in the Eukaryota.
Q: What are some common examples of organisms found within this group?
A: Examples of organisms found within this group include Chaos, Entamoeba, Pelomyxa and the genus Amoeba itself. Most are unicellular and can be found in soils and aquatic habitats. Some are symbionts of other organisms including several pathogens. The mycetozoans slime moulds are also included in this group which can usually be seen with the naked eye due to their multinucleate or multicellular forms that produce spores.
Q: How do these organisms feed?
A: Nutrition for these organisms occurs through phagocytosis where they cell surrounds food particles sealing them into vacuoles where they are digested and absorbed from there. When food becomes scarce many species form cysts which may be carried by air to other places; in slime moulds these structures are called spores and form on stalked structures called fruiting bodies or sporangia.
Q: Do any members have flagella?
A: Most members lack flagella but some archamoebae have flagella while many slime moulds produce biflagellate gametes; one example being Dictyostelium discoideum which is a model organism for studying this group further.
