Question

What are the four supergroups of Eukaryotes and identify common characteristics.

Answer 1

Ans. Following are the four supergroups of eukaryotes and their characteristics:

1. Excavata -This supergroup consists of members with characteristic "excavated groove on one side of their cell body.It consists of 3 major clades;the parabasalids and the diplomonads,both having a modified mitochondria and the euglenozoans that have flagella which is different in structure from those of other organisms.This supergroup includes parasites like Giardia as well as photosynthetic and predatory species.
2. ''SAR Clade'' - This supergroup is named after 3 large and very diverse clades;Stramenopila,Alveolata and Rhizaria.Stramenopila consists of some of the most important photosynthetic organisms of earth like diatoms.Alveolata consists of photosynthetic organisms as wells as some important pathogens,such as Plasmodium,malaria causing pathogen.The many of the important groups of photosynthetic organisms of stramenopila and alveolata are through to have been arised by the secondary endosymbiosis.Rhizarian subgroup includes many amoeba species,most of which have threadlike pseudopodia.
3. Archaeplastida -This supergroup includes the reg algae and the green algae,along with other land plants benlonging to the kingdom Plantae.Red algae and green algae consists of unicellular species,colonial species like the green alga volvox as well as multicellular species.Protists belonging to this supergroup consists of key photosynthetic species that forms the base,the important part of the food web in some of the aquatic communities.
4. Unikonta -Unikonta includes the amoebas having lobe or tube shaped pseudopodia and animals,fungi and other non-amoeba protists that are closely related to fungi or animals.This supergroup is also very diverse and consists of two clades;Amoebozoans and Opisthokonts.Amobozoans includes the group slime molds,that produces fruiting body which helps in spore dispersal.Opisthokonts includes the group Nucleariids that are closely related to fungi and Choanoflagellates that closely reates to animals.