About Fonticula alba str. ATCC 38817

Fonticula is a genus of cellular slime mold which forms a fruiting body in a volcano shape. In 1979, Fonticula was made a new genus of its own due to the unique characteristics of its fruiting body, with only one species: Fonticula alba.

The life cycle of Fonticula alba alternates between an amoeboid vegetative stage and aggregative fruiting stage. The fruiting body of the genus has a unique shape, as its sorocarp resembles a volcano and sorus looks like a ball of hot lava emerging from that volcano.

Molecular phylogenies have found alignments in genes of Fonticula alba to subgroups in Opisthokonta. A 2009 study has found that Fonticula is the sister taxa to Nuclearia, thus making it related to the kingdom Fungi.

Fonticula, Nuclearia, and Fungi have been united into the Holomycota, which is sister to the Holozoa.

(Text and image from Wikipedia, the free encyclopaedia.)

Taxonomy ID 691883

Data source Broad Institute

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