THE FLAGELLAR APPARATUS OF CAFETERIA-ROENBERGENSIS FENCHEL-AND-PATTERSON, 1988 (BICOSOECALES EQUALS BICOSOECIDA)

The flagellar apparatus of Cafeteria roenbergensis consists of two bas al bodies, three microtubular roots, of which one bears secondary cyto skeletal microtubules, and a forked rhizoplast that connects the elder , posteriorly directed basal body to the nucleus. Analysis of the thre e-dimensional architecture of this flagellar apparatus confirms that C afeteria belongs to the bicosoecids and suggests that there is little variation in flagellar apparatus features among bicosoecids. Feeding a pparatus architecture (the ''Type I feeding basket'') in bicosoecids d iffers from that in chromulinalean chrysophytes in several features. N evertheless, the structures in bicosoecids and chromulinalean chrysoph ytes are more similar to each other than to any other stramenopiles an d may share a similar mechanism based on microtubule-microtubule slidi ng. The feeding basket may be an ancestral motif among stramenopiles, conserved in different farms in bicosoecids and chromulinalean chrysop hytes but lost from other lineages.