Group of flagellated protozoa
| Oxymonads
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| Monocercomonoides melolanthae
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| Scientific classification
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Oxymonadida
Grassé 1952 emend. Cavalier-Smith 2003
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| Families
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- Oxymonadidae
- Polymastigidae
- Pyrsonymphidae
- Saccinobaculidae
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| Synonyms
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- Oxymonadales
- Polymastigales Engler 1898
- Polymastigida Calkins 1902
- Polymastigina Blochmann 1895
- Polymastigoda Seligo 1886
- Pyrsonymphales
- Pyrsonymphida Grassé 1952
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The Oxymonads (or Oxymonadida) are a group of flagellated protozoa found exclusively in the intestines of termites and other wood-eating insects. Along with the similar parabasalid flagellates, they harbor the symbiotic bacteria that are responsible for breaking down cellulose.
It includes Dinenympha, Pyrsonympha, and Oxymonas.[1]
Characteristics
Most Oxymonads are around 50 μm in size and have a single nucleus, associated with four flagella. Their basal bodies give rise to several long sheets of microtubules, which form an organelle called an axostyle, but different in structure from the axostyles of parabasalids. The cell may use the axostyle to swim, as the sheets slide past one another and cause it to undulate. An associated fiber called the preaxostyle separates the flagella into two pairs. A few oxymonads have multiple nuclei, flagella, and axostyles.
Relationship to Trimastix
The free-living flagellate Trimastix is closely related to the oxymonads.[2] It lacks mitochondria and has four flagella separated by a preaxostyle, but unlike the oxymonads has a feeding groove. This character places the Oxymonads and Trimastix among the Excavata, and in particular they may belong to the metamonads.
