Chromista

Abstract

The concept of chromists, at its most expansive, includes the heterokonts (stramenopiles), alveolates, rhizarians, heliozoans, telonemians, haptophytes and cryptophytes. There is mounting evidence that this grouping is not valid. Even in the narrowest sense (the heterokonts), chromists include very diverse forms, exhibiting a great variety of trophic mechanisms. This great diversity in form and feeding make it difficult to identify any unifying features, but molecular phylogenetic studies have shown that this group of organisms is indeed monophyletic. The distribution of morphological characters over reconstructed trees allows for the identification of potential synapomorphic characters that have been secondarily lost or modified across the group. These include a combination of mitochondria with tubular cristae; the biflagellate heterokont condition; and, if photosynthetic, then with chlorophyll c, girdle lamellae and four membranes around the chloroplast, the outer continuous with the nuclear envelope. Heterotrophy appears to be ancestral but is also occasionally a derived state from autotrophic forms.