'Nema' means thread and alludes to the organism's recurrent flagellum, which originates at the anterior end of the cell and passes through the groove.

[2] Although the initial description of Colponema does not explicitly provide an explanation of its etymology, the publication does highlight the organism's large abdominal groove and the figures show the flagellum going through it.

[5] Colponema loxodes was described in just one line, which stated that there was a large abdominal groove and made reference to a figure depicting the organism from different angles.

[8] The remaining species, C. edaphicum, C. vietnamica, and C. marisrubri were introduced to the genus in recent years, and phylogenetic analyses allowed researchers to use Colponema to ask questions about alveolate evolution.

[1] It is likely that larger eukaryotes and small animals are its primary predators, but the details of Colponema's ecological role have yet to be characterized because it is relatively rare and difficult to culture.

[1] In contrast, the cells do not share important traits that characterize the other groups of alveolates, such as rhoptries, derived ciliature, or palintomy.

[11] From high profile diseases like malaria to maintenance of bacterial communities in water reservoirs, alveolates can have sweeping medical and economic impacts.

[2][3] We can use this information to work towards reconstructing the common ancestor to all alveolates and broadening our understanding of these extremely important and widespread organisms.