Protista

In General Usually unicellular Reproduction: Some asexual, some sexual, some both Kingdom for life that doesn’t fit in animals, plant or fungi kingdom Mostly aquatic life 3 main categories

Animal-Like Protista AKA: Protozoans Basic Features: Aquatic, unicellular Heterotrophic: pathogens, parasites, predators Classified by how they move: 1) Pseudopods : move w/ pseudopodia (false- feet) Engulf by phagocytosis Ex: Amoebas 2) Flagellates: move w/ flagella Ex: Zooflagellates 3) Ciliates: move w/ cilia Ex: Paramecia

Amoeba (Pseudopod)

Flagellate Moving

Ciliate Moving

Animal-Like Protista & Disease Malaria Caused by: Plasmodium Vector: Mosquitoes Effects in humans: Fatigue, fever, vomiting, coma, death Sleeping sickness Caused by: Trypanosoma Vector: Tsetse flies Effects in humans: Coma & death

Plant-like Protista AKA: Algae Most unicellular; No leaves, stems, roots Perform photosynthesis with chloroplasts Classified by their type of cell wall 1) Euglenoids: use flagella to swim Animal & plant-like 2) Dinoflagellates Most (~ 90%) plankton Basis of aquatic food chains 3) Diatoms Glasslike shells Provide ~ ½ the O2 on earth Green algae Red algae Brown algae

Euglena

Fungus-like Protista Basic Features: 2 major groups: 1) Slime Molds Decomposers: Absorb and recycle nutrients Live in moist environments 2 major groups: 1) Slime Molds large (~1 meter) single celled mass of cytoplasm Fungus-like (absorbs food) Animal-like (can move) 2) Water molds: Can be parasitic Ex: Potato blight: caused Irish potato famine (1840’s)

Cool Slime Mold Video

Origins of Multicellularity Protista live in 3 arrangements… 1) Single-celled Live by themselves 2) Colonial Group of independent acting cells No specialized cells 3) Multicellular Cells specialized to be specific jobs Importance: Cells in colonies became efficient at certain tasks. Cells & their offspring became specialized and dependent on each other. = ANCESTORS OF MULTICELLULAR LIFE This is a colony of cells called Volvox Unicellular Euglena Multicellular Kelp

And lastly (if you couldn’t tell already)… Protists are difficult to classify Protista is one kingdom in the domain Eukarya. Some protists are not closely related. Molecular evidence supports reclassification. Protista classification will likely change.

REview 1) Name the three categories of protista. 2) Which category of protista has members that are able to move? 3) Which category of protista has members that absorb nutrients? 4) Which category of protista has members that are heterotrophs? 5) Which category of protista has members that hunt? 6) How does a pseudopod, flagella, and cilia differ? 7) Name the 3 major categories of protozoa. 8) Name the 3 major categories of algae. 9) Name the 2 major categories of fungus-like protista.