Developayellaceae
Family of predatory microbes
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Developeans[2] or developayellids[3] are a group of predatory single-celled eukaryotes. They are classified as the family Developayellaceae[1] (or Developayellidae in zoological nomenclature), the only family in the order Developayellales[4] (or Developayellida in zoological nomenclature) which is in turn the sole order in the class Developea,[5] part of the stramenopiles. All known members consume bacteria as prey, except for the genus Develorapax, which consumes other eukaryotes.[6]
| Developayellaceae | |
|---|---|
| |
| Light and transmission electron microscopy images of Develorapax marinus | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Clade: | Sar |
| Clade: | Stramenopiles |
| Phylum: | Bigyromonadea |
| Class: | Developea Aleoshin et al., 2016 |
| Order: | Developayellales Cavalier-Smith, 1997 |
| Family: | Developayellaceae Cavalier-Smith, 1997 |
| Type genus | |
| Developayella Tong, 1995 | |
| Genera[1] | |
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| Synonyms | |
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Taxonomy
The first known genus of developayellids, Developayella, was described in 1995. Due to many similarities shared with opalinids and heterokont algae, it was considered a member of the stramenopiles,[7] a diverse group of protists distinguished by two unequally sized flagella, one of which has tripartite mastigonemes (hair-like structures).[8]
In 1997, Thomas Cavalier-Smith proposed Developayella as the evolutionary link between pseudofungi and opalinids, and described higher taxon ranks to accommodate this genus: family Developayellaceae, order Developayellales, and class Bigyromonadea, in the stramenopile phylum Bigyra.[9] The concept of 'bigyromonad' was later expanded to include the class Pirsonea, another group of phagotrophic stramenopiles.[10][11]
In 2016, a second genus Develorapax was described, and the class Developea was created to accommodate both genera.[12] In 2018, Cavalier-Smith validated the order- and family-level names for this group under zoological nomenclature: Developayellida and Developayellidae, respectively.[11] The group was further expanded in 2020 and 2022 with the description of four new genera: Mediocremonas,[13] Develocauda, Develocanicus and Cubaremonas.[6]