Overview
Acrasidae is a family1] of which belongs to the protist group Percolozoa. The name acrasio- comes from the Greek Akrasia, meaning "acting against one's judgement." This group consists of cellular slime molds.
Some would also consider it as a kingdom unto itself, but the debate is as of yet unsettled.
The term "Acrasiomycota" has been used when the group was believed to be a fungus ("-mycota").
Reproduction
When resources, such as water or food become limiting, the amoeba will release pheromones such as acrasin to aggregate amoebal cells in preparation for movement as a large (thousands of cells) grex or pseudopod. When in the grex, the amoeboids reproduce sexually, resulting in fruit-like structures called spores, wh ich develop into unicellular molds of the same species.
Taxonomy
The Phylum Acrasiomycota is further organized into finer groupings including:
- Class (1): Acrasiomycetes
- Species: ZipcodeZoo has pages for 13 species and subspecies in the Phylum Acrasiomycota.
Classes
Acrasiomycetes
At least 3 species and subspecies belong to the Class Acrasiomycetes.
More info about the Class Acrasiomycetes may be found here.
References
- ^ Roger AJ, Smith MW, Doolittle RF, Doolittle WF (1996). "Evidence for the Heterolobosea from phylogenetic analysis of genes encoding glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase". J. Eukaryot. Microbiol. 43 (6): 475–85. PMID 8976605.
Sources
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