Product Code Database
A bikont ("two flagella") is any of the eukaryote organisms classified in the group Bikonta. Many single-celled and multi-celled organisms are members of the group, and these, as well as the presumed ancestor, have two flagella.
The genes are separately translated in .
Relationships within the bikonts are not yet clear. Cavalier-Smith has grouped the Excavata and Rhizaria into the Cabozoa and the Archaeplastida and Chromalveolata into the Corticata, but at least one other study has suggested that the Rhizaria and Chromalveolata form a clade.
An alternative to the Unikont–Bikont division was suggested by Derelle et al. in 2015, where they proposed the Scotokaryotes– Diphoda respectively, as substitutes to the older terms. The name Diphoda is formed from the letters of discoba and diaphoretickes (shown in capitals).
However, a cladogram (data from 2015, 2016) with the root in Excavata is
The corticata correspond roughly to the bikonts. While Haptophyta, Cryptophyta, Glaucophyta, Rhodophyta, the SAR supergroup and Viridiplantae are usually considered monophyletic, Archaeplastida may be paraphyletic, and the mutual relationships between these phyla are still to be fully resolved.
Recent reconstructions placed Archaeplastida and Hacrobia together in an "HA supergroup" or "AH supergroup", which was a sister clade to the SAR supergroup within the SAR/HA supergroup. However, this seems to have fallen out of favor as the monophyly of hacrobia has come under dispute.
|
|
