Creolimax fragrantissima
Species of protist
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Creolimax fragrantissima is a single-celled protist that occupies a key phylogenetic position to understand the origin of animals. It was isolated from the digestive tract of some marine invertebrates, mainly from the peanut worm, collected from the Northeast Pacific.
| Creolimax fragrantissima | |
|---|---|
| |
Scientific classification  | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Clade: | Obazoa |
| Clade: | Opisthokonta |
| Clade: | Holozoa |
| Class: | Ichthyosporea |
| Order: | Ichthyophonida |
| Family: | Creolimacidae |
| Genus: | Creolimax |
| Species: | C. fragrantissima |
| Binomial name | |
| Creolimax fragrantissima Marshall, 2008 | |
| Synonyms[1] | |
|
Ichthyophonida sp. fragrantissima | |
Taxonomy
Creolimax is a member of the Ichthyosporea, which is the earliest branching holozoan lineage.[2]
Applications
Creolimax is one of the few ichthyosporeans that is culturable. It can be easily grown in the lab through cycles of asexual reproduction. Each cycle comprises two stages. First, a growth stage, in which the cells, which are non-motile, contain several nuclei, a cell wall, and a big central vacuole. This stage is followed by a release of motile amoeboids, which are mono-nucleated and non-dividing.[3][4] Characterising those two stages can help to elucidate the development of specific cell types in multicellular animals.
Moreover, it has been shown that Creolimax uses a complex gene regulation system, including long non-coding RNAs and exon skipping alternative splicing, which were normally associated with multicellular animals.[4]