Article with IF > 8: Evolution: No end in sight for novel incredible (heterotrophic) protists
Summary: The microbial eukaryotes known as protists are of immense importance for our understanding of eukaryotic biology. Although it is often difficult to convince funding bodies to sponsor research projects aimed at finding new protist lineages, such discoveries usually provide new and fundamental insights into cell and evolutionary biology, and ecology.
Lukeš J., Čepička I., Kolísko M. 2024: Evolution: No end in sight for novel incredible (heterotrophic) protists. Current Biology 34: R53–R74. [IF = 9.2]. DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2023.10.065
In the last decade, several heterotrophic protists have been described that substantially expanded the known eukaryotic diversity, in many cases representing new kingdoms or supergroups. Moreover, they were also instrumental in revealing, in some molecular processes or structures, major departures from what was until now considered a general eukaryotic concensus. We argue that, counterintutively, some exciting heterotrophs may be hiding in plain sight, so potentially very productive explorations should target them.
