The flagellates, a subphylum of Protozoa having one or more locomotory flagella, a single vesicular nucleus, and symmetric binary fission; sexual reproduction is unknown in many groups ( e.g., Volvox, Trypanosoma, Euglena). It consists of two classes: Phytomastigophorea (to which Euglena belongs), which contains chlorophyll and is therefore photosynthetic and holophytic (although this has secondarily been lost in some groups), and Zoomastigophorea (including Trypanosoma and Leishmania), which lacks chromatophores and is heterotrophic. [G. mastix (mastig-), a whip, + phoros, bearing]
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Mas·ti·goph·ora .mas-tə-'gäf-ə-rə n pl a subphylum of protozoans comprising forms typically having one or more flagella and reproducing asexually usu. by binary fission
mas·ti·goph·o·ran -rən adj or n
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Mas·ti·goph·o·ra (mas″tĭ-gofґə-rə) [Gr. mastix whip + phoros bearing] in older systems of classification, a subphylum of protozoa of the phylum Sarcomastigophora, comprising the flagellates, i.e., all those with one or more flagella in the trophozoite. Mastigophorans have a simple, centrally placed nucleus and reproduce by longitudinal binary fission, and most are free-living but many are parasitic in invertebrates or vertebrates. This group was traditionally divided into the classes Phytomastigophorea and Zoomastigophorea.Medical dictionary. 2011.