Kingdom Protista
• Placed into this kingdom by exclusion…
because they are not part of any other
• Not quite plant, animals, fungi or bacteria,
though they share some characteristics
of those
• Most are unicellular, some multi
• Most are heterotrophic, some auto
• Reproduce sexually (conjugation) and
asexually (binary fission)
• Classified by how they move and/or what
kingdom they are like
Animal-like protists
• Also called protozoa
• Live in water/moist soil and feed on
smaller organisms (bacteria,
protists)
• Phylum protozoa
– Amoeboid movement…cytoplasm moves
forward in a pseudopod (false foot) and
pulls rest of body that way
– e.g. amoeba, foraminiferans, radiolarians
– e.g. Entamoeba histolytica…amebiasis
Amoeba
Radiolarians
Foraminiferans
Animal-like protists
• Phylum Ciolophora
– Move by cilia…small hairs that beat in
rhythm
– Cilia move food into an oral groove that
ends in a food vacuole
– Remove water from cell by contractile
vacuole
– 2 nuclei:
• Macronucleus…controls functions
• Micronucleus…used during conjugation
Paramecium
Paramecium reproduction
Paramecia conjugating:
http://www.youtube.com/wat
ch?v=5c_Vhb0vBVw
Animal-like protists
• Phylum Sarcomastigophora
– Move by flagella…long whip like tail
– e.g. trypanosome (African Sleeping
Sickeness), Giardiasis, Trichomoniasis
• Phylum Apicomplexa
– Don’t move, all are parasites
– Named for apical complex…specialized
structures used to enter host
– e.g. toxoplasma, cryptosporidium,
plasmodium (malaria)
Trypanosome (sleeping
sickness)
Plasmodium (malaria)
Plant-like protists
• All are autotrophic and photosynthetic
• Most live in water and have a flagellum at
some point in their life
• Algae…classified by pigments used for
photosynthesis and color
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Green algae: what you think of as “algae”
Brown algae: seaweed and kelp
Diatoms: live in soil
Dinoflagelates: bioluminesce (make own light)
Euglenoids: Euglenas: have a light detecting
area called an eye spot.
Dinoflagellates
Euglena
Euglena
http://www.youtube.com/watc
h?v=z01EUaUd3E4
Diatoms
Spirogyra
Volvox
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8O4Ool
GcPg
Fungus-like protists
• Reproduce using spores contained in
a fruiting body like fungi do
• Slime molds and water molds
Impact on humans
• Good:
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Create oxygen (plantlike)/carbon cycle
Basis of food chain, especially aquatic
Symbiotic relationships, e.g. coral colors
Research: chemotaxis (cell movement)
Food: seaweed
• Bad:
– Algae blooms: use up all oxygen
– Diseases (specific ones mentioned earlier)
Movies
• Paramecia conjugating:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5c_Vhb0vBVw
• Close up contractile vacuoule
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iG6Dd3COug4
• Amoeba moving:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRymTNuPi2M
• Euglena
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z01EUaUd3E4
• Volvox
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8O4OolGcPg
• Amoeba eating
http://wolfbat359.com/phagocytosis1.mov