Zooflagellates and Choanoflagellates

By Maddy Smith

Basic Facts-Zooflagellates Unicellular (few are colonial) Spherical or elongated bodies Central nucleus Whiplike flagella for movement Some engulf food using pseudopoda, others

have defined mouths

Nutrition

Heterotrophic Ingest living or dead organisms OR absorb

nutrients from dead/decomposing organic matter

Free-living or endosymbionts Trichonymphs live in guts of termites and

cockroaches (mutualism) Have special enzymes for digesting cellulose (in

endosym. Instances)

Relationships Can be parasitic and pathogenic Trypanosoma- human parasite which causes

African sleeping sickness Diplomonad: zooflagellate with one or two

nuclei, no mitochondria, 1-4 flagella Giardia intestinalis: common contaminate in

mountain streams

Choanoflagellates Phylum: Zoomastigina

Facts Water-dwellers: marine and freshwater Free-swimming or sessile (permanently

attached by a thin stalk to debris) Single flagellum surrounded at base by collar

of microvilli