Diplonemidae

Diplonemidae
Diplonema papillatum
Scientific classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Clade: Discoba
Phylum: Euglenozoa
Subphylum: Glycomonada
Class: Diplonemea
Order: Diplonemida
Family: Diplonemidae
Lukeš, Julius; Flegontova, Olga; Horák, Aleš (2015).
Genera
Synonyms
  • Rhynchopodaceae Skuja 1948 ex Cavalier-Smith 1993

Diplonemidae is a family of biflagellated unicellular protists that may be among the more diverse and common groups of planktonic organisms in the ocean. Although this family is currently made up of three named genera; Diplonema, Rhynchopus, and Hemistasia, there likely exist thousands of still unnamed genera. Organisms are generally colourless and oblong in shape, with two flagella emerging from a subapical pocket. They possess a large mitochondrial genome composed of fragmented linear DNA. These non-coding sequences must be massively trans-spliced, making it one of the most complicated post-transcriptional editing process known to eukaryotes.