Kingdom Protista
Fidgety little critters!
What is a Protist?
• Eukaryotic
– Has a nucleus!
• Mostly single celled
• Classified by:
– MOVEMENT
– OBTAIN FOOD
• Animal-like:
– Heterotrophic
• Plant-like:
– Autotrophic (have chloroplasts)
• Fungus-like:
– Parasitic
– REPRODUCE
Animal-like Protists:
Sarcodinia
• Movement:
– By pseudopods:
• Little blobs of cytoplasm
• Means “Fake Feet”
• Consumer Nutrition:
– Surround meal and bring into food
vacuole
• Phagocytosis!
• Reproduction:
– Binary Fission
• Organism:
– Amoeba amoeba
Amoeba
Animal-like Protists: Ciliates
• Movement:
– By cilia:
• Little “hairs” that beat like
oars
• Consumer Nutrition:
– Food is swept in by cilia to
GULLET
– Contractile vacuoles collect
and “spit out” water
• Reproduction:
– Binary fission AND
conjugation
• Organism:
– Paramecium caudatum,
Stentor coeruleus,
Blepharisma
Paramecium
Stentor
Plant-like Protists: Flagellates
(Volvox)
• Colonial organism:
– Hundreds of individual cells “live”
together
• Movement:
– Long, whip-like flagella
– Whole colony moves together!
• Nutrition:
– Autotrophic
– Contain chloroplasts! (Hence
green color!)
• Reproduction:
– Binary fission
Volvox
Euglenophytes: The plant-like
animal protist
• NO CELL WALL:
– Has pellicle
• MOVEMENT:
– TWO flagella
• NUTRITION:
– Autotrophic (chloroplasts)
– Can be heterotrophic when no
sunlight!
– Red spot helps organism to
find sunlight
• REPRODUCTION:
– By binary fission
• ORGANISM:
– Euglena
Euglena
Helpful Diagrams for Lab
Also called eyespot
Helpful Diagrams for Lab
Volvox
Helpful Diagrams for Lab
Helpful Diagrams for Lab
Stentor
Cilia
Mouth
Gullet
Contractile
Vacuole
Food Vacuole
General tips/tricks for success the
next 2 days…
• Follow ALL microscope rules/techniques you’ve
learned!
– Focus on low power first with coarse adjustment.
– Then switch to higher powers and use fine adjustment.
• DO NOT mix the droppers! Only use Euglena droppers
for Euglena, etc.
• Use same slide and cover slip and keep washing them
off and drying them each time you get a new specimen.
• BE CAREFUL around the live specimen! Only ONE
person per group should be making the slide. Don’t
crowd the area and increase the risk of spilling the
specimen!!
General tips/tricks for success the
next 2 days…
• The stentor and amoeba:
– They are supposed to look like blobs of cytoplasm.
– They are NOT the tiny swimming things that you may see
around the non-moving blobs. Those are probably some other
protozoa like paramecium.
• You SHOULD move the slide around on the
•
stage to “search” for specimen if you don’t see
anything at first.
Also, some of them are VERY fast. Sometimes
you only get a quick glance as they “swim” by.
General tips/tricks for success the
next 2 days…
• If at first you don’t succeed…
• It’s OK to go back and try to make
another slide of the organism. It is quite
possible to get one that does not have any
of the organism in it.
• REMEMBER, you only need a few drops
from the pipette onto the slide, though.
General tips/tricks for success the
next 2 days…
• The volvox are SOOOO cool! They are my
•
•
•
favorite!
You may want to skip to these first just to
ensure a good, LIVE, view of them!
You MAY use a textbook for help labeling the
diagrams, BUT the best help will be going to my
website and using this PowerPoint!!
The questions in the lab are easy and only
require you to read the paragraphs about each
organism.