Unikont

Unikonts are one of the five superkingdoms in the classification of eukaryotes. They are part of the taxonomy system of Thomas Cavalier-Smith.^[1][2]

Unikonta
Orange elephant ear sponge, Agelas clathrodes, in foreground. Two corals in the background: a sea fan, Iciligorgia schrammi, and a sea rod, Plexaurella nutans.
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
(unranked):	Unikonta Cavalier-Smith, 2002
Subgroups
Obazoa Breviata Apusomonadida Opisthokonts Amoebozoa
Synonyms
Amorphea Adl et al., 2012 Opimoda Derelle et al., 2015

The term is no longer used. It is replaced by the term Amorphea.^[3]

Clade

The group is claimed to be a clade. It includes eukaryotic cells that:

• have a single flagellum, or
• are amoebae with no flagella.

The unikonts include opisthokonts (animals, fungi, and related forms) and Amoebozoa. By contrast other well-known eukaryotic groups are often referred to as bikonts. Bikonts include Archaeplastida (plants and relatives), Excavata, Rhizaria, and Chromalveolata. These groups may have two flagella (although there are many exceptions).

Characteristics

The unikonts have a triple-gene fusion that is lacking in the bikonts. The three genes code for enzymes which make pyrimidine nucleotides. This must have involved a double gene fusion, a rare pair of events, which supports the shared ancestry of Opisthokonta and Amoebozoa.