Ultrastructural studies on Bigelowiella natans, gen. et sp nov., a chlorarachniophyte flagellate

Three isolates from the Provasoli-Guillard National Center for Culture of Marine Phytoplankton at Bigelow Laboratory, previously labeled Pedinomonas sp. and Pedinomonas minutissima from the green algal class Pedinophyceae, have been examined by light microscopy and TEM and shown to belong to the Chlorarachniophyceae, a class of nucleomorph-containing amebae. The three isolates represent the first chlorarachniophycean flagellates to be discovered. The ultrastructure of the cells has been examined in detail, with particular emphasis on the flagellar apparatus, a feature not examined in detail in chlorarachniophytes before. Cells are basically biflagellate, but the second flagellum is represented by a very short basal body only. Flagellar replication has shown this flagellum to be the mature stage, that is, the no. 1 flagellum, whereas the long emergent flagellum is the no. 2 flagellum that shortens into a short basal body during cell division. Mitosis is open with a pair of centrioles at each pole. Emergent flagella are absent during mitosis. Cells may form cysts, and the flagellar basal bodies and part of the flagellar roots are maintained in the cysts. Four microtubular roots emanate from the basal bodies, and the path of one of them is very unusual and very unlike any other known flagellate. No striated roots were observed. Other fine-structural features of the cell include a very unusual type of pyrenoid and a special type of extrusome. Cells are mixotrophic. The three isolates are very similar and are described as Bigelowiella natans, gen. et sp. nov. Ultrastructurally, chlorarachniophytes do not show close relationship to any known group of algae or other protists.