The Novel Marine Gliding Zooflagellate Genus Mantamonas (Mantamonadida ord. n.: Apusozoa)

Mantamonasis a novel genus of marine gliding zooflagellates probably related to apusomonad and planomonad Apusozoa. Using phase and differential interference contrast microscopy we describe the type speciesMantamonas plasticasp. n. from coastal sediment in Cumbria, England. Cells are ∼5 μm long, ∼5 μm wide, asymmetric, flattened, biciliate, and somewhat plastic. The posterior cilium, on which they glide smoothly over the substratum, is long and highly acronematic. The much thinner, shorter, and almost immobile anterior cilium points forward to the cell's left. These morphological and behavioural traits suggest thatMantamonasis a member of the protozoan phylum Apusozoa. Analyses of 18S and 28S rRNA gene sequences ofMantamonas plasticaand a second genetically very different marine species from coastal sediment in Tanzania showMantamonasas a robustly monophyletic clade, that is very divergent from all other eukaryotes. 18S rRNA trees mostly placeMantamonaswithin unikonts (opisthokonts, Apusozoa, and Amoebozoa) but its precise position varies with phylogenetic algorithm and/or taxon and nucleotide position sampling; it may group equally weakly as sister to Planomonadida, Apusomonadida orBreviata. On 28S rRNA and joint 18/28S rRNA phylogenies (including 11 other newly obtained apusozoan/amoebozoan 28S rRNA sequences) it consistently strongly groups with Apusomonadida (Apusozoa).