Mixotricha
| Mixotricha | |
|---|---|
| Scientific classification | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Clade: | Metamonada |
| Phylum: | Parabasalia |
| Class: | Cristamonadea |
| Order: | Calonymphida |
| Family: | Mixotrichidae Boscaro & Keeling 2024 |
| Genus: | Mixotricha Sutherland 1933 |
| Species: | M. paradoxa
|
| Binomial name | |
| Mixotricha paradoxa Sutherland 1933
| |
Mixotricha paradoxa is a species of protozoan that lives inside the gut of the Australian termite species Mastotermes darwiniensis.
It is composed of five different organisms: three bacterial ectosymbionts live on its surface for locomotion and at least one endosymbiont lives inside to help digest cellulose in wood to produce acetate for its host(s).
Mixotricha mitochondria degenerated into hydrogenosomes and mitosomes and lost the ability to produce energy aerobically by oxidative phosphorylation. The mitochondria-derived nuclear genes were however conserved.