Thesis (Ph.D.)--Mississippi State University. Department of Basic Sciences. / Title from title screen. Includes bibliographical references.

This thesis is focused on the assessment of the phylogenetic position of the Myxozoa within the Metazoa, study of the evolutionary relationships within myxosporeans and investigation into the cryptic species assemblages of several myxosporeans based on the ribosomal and protein-coding data. The major part of this work was to confirm the evolutionary trends within myxosporeans based on a single gene by other molecular markers in order to find out if the reconstructed relationships correspond to the real organismal phylogeny. This has been a crucial step for future actions in solving the discrepancies between the myxosporean phylogeny and taxonomy.