KINGDOM PROTISTA
By: Joanna, Kyla, and Larissa
WHAT IS A PROTIST?
 Single or multiple cell eukaryotic
organisms with an enclosed nucleus that
cannot be classified as an animal, fungi
or plant
ANIMAL-LIKE PROTISTS
 Animal like protists are animal like because:
-they cannot make they own food
-they consume other organisms for food
-they are able to move
 The 4 categories of animal-like protists are:
 cercozoans, ciliates, flagellates, and sporozoans
ANIMAL-LIKE PROTISTS: CHARACTERISTICS
 Cercozoans (Phylum Cercozoa):
• The most familiar cercozoan are the amoebas
• Their surface is a cell membrane with a cell wall
• They change shape to move using their internal
cytoskeleton
• They are around 100-1000 micrometers long
• Temporary extensions of cytoplasm called
pseudopods ("false feet") are used for feeding and
movement
• They contain a nucleus, food and contractile
vacuoles and cytoplasm
ANIMAL-LIKE PROTISTS: CHARACTERISTICS
 Ciliates (Phylum Ciliophora):
•They are large and complex protists
•The most familiar ciliate is paramecium
•Their cell surface is covered in short hair like
projections called cilia which helps in the
movement of the cell and food particles
• Ciliates are around 100-3000 micrometers in
length
•They have 2 nuclei, one for reproduction and
one for general cell regulation
•They have an oral groove, gullet and food and
contractile vacuoles
ANIMAL-LIKE PROTISTS: CHARACTERISTICS
 Flagellates (Phylum Zoomastiginal) :
•They have one or multiple flagella that whips from side
to side for movement
• A flagellum is a long hair like projection extending from
the cell membrane surrounded by a protective covering
• Flagellates are around 5-20 micrometers long
Sporozoans (Phylum Sporozoa) :
•They are parasites that do not move
•They produce spores which are cells that are able to
develop asexually
•An example is Plasmodium which causes malaria in
humans
ANIMAL-LIKE PROTISTS: HABITAT AND
LIVING CONDITIONS
• Animal-like protists can live almost anywhere where there is water or
a moist environment
- Cercozoans :
•Amoeba live in salt water, fresh water, mud and inside animals
•An example is Entamoeba Hystolitica
•They feed on the lining of the human small intestine causing an
illness called amoebic dysentery
•This can be spread by drinking contaminated water or by
consuming contaminated produce
- Ciliates:
•They live in fresh water, salt water, and in animals
• Some are free living and some are parasites
•An example is Balantidium Coli which lives in the large intestine and
causes diarrhea
ANIMAL-LIKE PROTISTS: HABITAT AND
LIVING CONDITIONS
 Flagellates:
• They live in fresh water, salt water and in animals
• Some are free living, parasites and some live in a mutualistic
relationships meaning both organisms benefit from the
relationship
• An example is some flagellates live in termites intestines to
convert the cellulose into sugar because they are unable to
digest cellulose.
 Sporozoans :
• They live on or in animals
ANIMAL-LIKE PROTISTS: NUTRITIONAL
PATTERNS
 Animal-like protists are mostly heterotrophic, they rely on other organisms
for nutrition
• The protist finds a single-celled organism and engulfs them with a mouth
like structure or pseudopodia and ingests it
• They eat bacteria and algae
• Process of eating for animal-like protists:
1) wraps around prey
2) creates food vacuole around prey acting as a storage compartment
3) produces toxins to paralyze its prey
4) once digested the food moves into the cytoplasm
ANIMAL-LIKE PROTISTS: REPRODUCTION
 There are 2 types of reproduction for animal-like protists
 Asexual (binary fission) :
 the cell duplicates it's DNA and divides into two genetically
identical offspring
 Sexual (conjugation) :
 Protists exchange genetic material to prevent death caused by
performing binary fission over hundreds of times
• The protists exchange genetic material then divide into 4
genetically different offspring
ANIMAL-LIKE PROTISTS: LIFE CYCLE
Life cycle of amoeba
ANIMAL-LIKE PROTISTS: LIFE CYCLE
Life cycle of paramecium
ANIMAL-LIKE PROTISTS: LIFE CYCLE
Life cycle of plasmodium
FUNGUS LIKE PROTISTS
 There are two types:
 Slime molds
 Plasmodial slime molds (most common) & cellular slime molds
 Water molds
 Two important phyla of water molds: Chytrids and Oomycetes
 They produce spore like fungi. However, they are
different from fungi on a cellular level.
FUNGUS-LIKE PROTISTS: CHARACTERISTICS
 Slime Molds:
 Has traits of both fungi and animal
 Made up of individual cells = look like blobs, gooey or foamy masses,
spilled jelly or vomit
 Color: orange, red, yellow, brown, black, blue, or white.
 Cellular Slime molds: pieces will pull themselves back together if diced
up
 Plasmodial molds: enormous single cells with thousands of nuclei. They
are formed when individual flagellated cells swarm together and fuse.
 Mass thrives as food is available; however if food is scarce = the mass
separates into smaller blobs
 When nutrients and moisture is scarce, cells send out a chemical beacon
to attract other cells of the same species (pseudo plasmodium).
they join up to form a structure that looks and acts like a slug to move to a
favorable location
FUNGUS-LIKE PROTISTS: CHARACTERISTICS
 Water Molds:
 Resembles fungi b/c they have branched filaments (hyphae) and
form spores
 Certain water molds are parasites of fish and marine
invertebrates
 Other cause disease in plants such as: tobacco, grapes, and
potatoes
 Chytrids: take the form of small masses called sporangia which
has many hair like rhizoids protrude.
 Oomycetes: they caused sudden oak death syndrome and blue
mold of tobacco
FUNGUS-LIKE PROTISTS: NUTRITIONAL
PATTERNS
 Slime Molds:
 They eat decaying vegetation, bacteria, fungi, and other slime molds.
 Water Molds:
 Live as saprobes (decomposer) = obtains metabolic energy from
decaying plant and animal material
FUNGUS-LIKE PROTISTS: HABITAT AND
LIVING CONDITIONS
 Slime Molds:
 Commonly found in forests
 Found worldwide and typically thrive in dark, cool, moist
conditions
 Water Molds:
 Dead organic matter
 Chytrids: lives in salt & fresh water and in moist soil
FUNGUS-LIKE PROTISTS: REPRODUCTION
o All fungus-like protists can reproduce sexually or asexually.
 Water Molds: Reproduction happens in the hyphae
o Asexual reproduction involves hyphae which develop
into zoosporangia. Flagellated spores swim away in search of
food. Spores develop into hyphae when they find food and grow into
a new organism
o Sexual reproduction takes place in specialized structures that are
formed by hyphae. Antheridium produces male nuclei and
oogonium produces female nuclei. Fertilization takes place in
oogonium and spores form a new organism
FUNGUS-LIKE PROTISTS: REPRODUCTION
Water Mold Reproduction
FUNGUS-LIKE PROTISTS: REPRODUCTION
 Slime Molds:
o production of spores that takes a form out of the 4 forms (such as sporangium = most common)
 Can grow as large as several meters in diameter
 Asexual Reproduction Steps:
1. send out chemical signals to attract other cells of the same species
2. thousands of cells aggregate into a large sluglike colony that functions as a
single organism
3. produces a fruiting body, slender reproductive structure that produces spores
4. spores are scattered
5. each spore gives rise to a single amoeba-like cell and the cycle is repeated
o In Sexual reproduction, the cells fuse into a sexual union to produce a diploid zygote) than amorbae is
scattered and cycle is repeated.
FUNGUS-LIKE PROTISTS: REPRODUCTION
Slime Mold Reproduction
PLANT-LIKE PROTISTS
 contain pigments in their chloroplasts to carry out
photosynthesis
 most common of these pigments is chlorophyll-green
colouring
 unicellular plant like protists include, diatoms, dinoflagellates
+ euglenoids
PLANT-LIKE PROTISTS: CHARACTERISTICS
 Diatoms-Phylum Chrysophta
 Phytoplankton is single celled, free-floating aquatic organisms.
Diatom, are among the most diverse and abundant and are an
important source of food for large marine life
 They have rigid cell walls with of outer layer silica- (common
ingredient in sand and glass
 The walls are made of 2 unequal parts, the smaller one which fits
neatly inside the other
PLANT-LIKE PROTISTS: CHARACTERISTICS
Dinoflagellates-Phylum Pyrrophta:
 Most are phytoplankton
 They have two flagella at right angles to each other
 As they beat, a twirling motion is produced to allow the organisms to move by spinning
through the water
 As a result of a population explosion called a bloom or an algal bloom
 in species that have red photosynthetic pigments, referred to a red tide
 the species that formed tides produce a toxin that becomes concentrated in the tissues of
the organisms eating plankton-shellfish that eat shellfish
Euglenoids
 In the genus Euglena, have a light-detecting stricter known as an eyespot
 This light receptor does not create an image like the animal eye
 But this allows them to use their flagella to direct them towards the light.
PLANT-LIKE PROTISTS: NUTRITIONAL
PATTERNS
 Diatoms-Phylum Chrysophta
 Photosynthesis
Euglenoids:
 even though they have chloroplast and conduct photosynthesis they also have flagella and can absorb nutrients
 With both plant-like and animal like characteristics they tend to be autotrophs in sunlight and heterotrophs in
the dark
Dinoflagellates-Phylum Pyrrophta:
 Benefit by using nitrogen waste and carbon dioxide by the coral, and the coral gains the benefits of
photosynthesis, carried on by the protists
 If ocean temps, increase to abnormal levels, the coral-protisits partnership breaks down
 protists are expelled in a process reefed to coral bleaching
 this process often leads to the death of the coral
PLANT-LIKE PROTISTS: HABITAT AND
GENERAL LIVING CONDITIONS
Diatoms-Phylum Chrysophta:
 free-floating aquatic organisms
Euglenoids:
 there are over 1000 different species of euglenoids which
most are found in shallow waters
Dinoflagellates-Phylum Pyrrophta:
 some live in other organisms
 best known as reef-building coral
PLANT-LIKE PROTISTS: REPRODUCTION
Diatoms-Phylum Chrysophta
 most of the time they reproduce asexually by mitosis
 Sexual is less common and occurs under unfavourable condition
Dinoflagellates-Phylum Pyrrophta
 under certain condition such as abundant amount of nutrients they reproduce very quickly
 living inside many species of coral are dinoflagellates of the genus Symbiodinium
Diatoms-Phylum Chrysophta
 Phytoplankton is single celled, free-floating aquatic organisms
PLANT-LIKE PROTISTS: REPRODUCTION
 Life cycle of
Diatoms
PLANT-LIKE PROTISTS: REPRODUCTION
 Dinoflagellates-Phylum
Pyrrophta
PLANT-LIKE PROTISTS: REPRODUCTION
 Euglenoids
PLANT-LIKE PROTISTS: FACTS
Dinoflagellates-Phylum Pyrrophta:
 -if or when ingested by humans of the shellfish may fall ill or die.
 -since the Earth`s temps rise over recent decades, more frequent incidences of
dinoflagellate being expelled from corals have occurred
 -permanent damage to Australia’s Great Barrier Reef
 -when they are permanently damaged as a result of bleaching, other organisms
that eat the coral or live in the reef are also affected
ALGAE
 A unicellular or multicellular photosynthetic, aquatic protist
 Multicellular algae is commonly called seaweed
 3 Phyla:
 Brown algae (Phylum Phaeophyta)
 Red algae (Phylum Rhodophyta)
 Green Algae (Phylum Chlorophyta)
ALGAE
Brown algae (Phylum Phaeophyta):
 Largest and most complex protists
 Key components of marine and tidal environments
Red algae (Phylum Rhodophyta):
 Have green chlorophyll and a pigment called phycoerythrin which allows algae to thrive at 100m
deep in the ocean
 Common as a food and in the food-processing economically

Green Algae (Phylum Chlorophyta):
 Most are aquatic
 Found in fresh water or salt water environments, sea ice, on trees and even on the fur of sloths
 The most plant- like of the algae, they have the same types of chlorophyll and colour as land plant
QUIZ TIME
What are Protists?
Single or multiple cell eukaryotic organisms with an enclosed
nucleus that cannot be classified as an animal, fungi or plant
How many subcatergories of
protists are there?
Three.
ACTIVITY