Kingdom Protista

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Kingdom Protista

• The most diverse group of organisms

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Discovery of Protists

• Anton van Leeuwenhoek
• Lived around 300 years ago
• First to use a microscope to see cells
• No more pleasant sight has met my eye than this
  of so many thousands of living creatures in one
  small drop of water.

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What can you find in a single drop of water??
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Evolution of Protists

• Evolved from prokaryotes 1.5 billion years ago
• Protists are the first known eukaryotic organisms
• They would lead to the evolution of fungi, plants
  and animals

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What is a protist?

• A eukaryote that cannot be classified as fungi,
  plant or animal
• An organism that has very diverse characteristics
• A microscopic organism that lives in water
• Can be grouped into two general categories
• Protozoa
• Algae

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How many cells?? (It depends!)

• Most protists are unicellular, but some are
  multicellular
• Some are colonial
• each individual has a specific number of cells
• all individuals together make up the colony
• the colony acts like a multi-celled organism

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Volvox Colonies

• http//video.google.com/videoplay?docid-347180796
  7695834419

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What is their function? (It depends!)

• Some are
• Producers
• many protists are photosynthetic and are major
  contributors to the Earths oxygen atmosphere
• Consumers
• some protists eat other organisms for energy
• Decomposers
• some breakdown dead organisms to return nutrients
  to the soil

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The Protozoa Blues

• http//video.google.com/videoplay?docid3578205676
  570425677qprotozoasite3Avideo.google.comtotal
  13start0num10so0typesearchplindex2

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Protists The 411

• All are Eukaryotes
• All are aerobic (require oxygen)
• All have mitochondria
• All live in water-based environments
• (fresh water, oceans and seas, damp soil, snow)
• Some have chloroplasts
• Some reproduce asexually, some sexually

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3 Main Types

• Plant-like protists
• Animal-like protists
• Fungus-like protists

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Plant-like Protists (AKA algae)

• Algae are protists that are strictly
  photosynthetic
• Algae are distinguished by the type of
  photosynthetic pigment they contain
• Algae are also classified based on their cell or
  body shape

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Green Algae Phylum Chlorophyta

• Most are found in freshwater
• Major part of plankton (small organisms found on
  the surface of a body of water)
• Contain chloroplasts and undergo photosynthesis

Biscayne Bay Miami, FL
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Brown Algae Phylum Phaeophyta

• Multicellular
• Found in marine and coastal regions
• Examples kelp, seaweed
• Can be up to 30 m long
• Provide protection and shelter for many coastal
  fish

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Red Algae Phylum Rhodophyta
Caloosahatchee River, SE Florida (Gulf of Mexico
side of Florida)

• Multicellular
• Found in tropical zones and deep ocean regions
• Able to absorb light that penetrates deep waters

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Diatoms Phylum Bacillariophyta

• Unicellular
• Cell wall contains silica (mineral found in
  glass)
• Double shell (fits together like the bottom and
  top of a shoe box)
• Their shells are used to make reflective paints

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Dinoflagellates Phylum Dinoflagellata

• Have 2 flagella
• Huge increases in population cause red tides
  fish are killed due to less oxygen in the water,
  water looks red due to overpopulation
• Most are found in saltwater

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Euglenoids Phylum Euglenophyta

• One flagella
• Eyespot light sensitive organ that tells the
  organism to move toward light
• Found mostly in freshwater

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Animal-like Protists (AKA protozoa)

• Classified based on their type of nutrition
• Ingest their food by endocytosis (engulfing food
  into the cytoplasm)

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Paramecium Phylum Ciliophora

• Move by beating tiny hair-like structures called
  cilia
• The cilia act in unison like oars on a boat
• Have one large contractile vacuole for water and
  waste storage

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Amoebas Phylum Rhizopoda

• Move by pseudopodia
• (false feet)
• Amoebas can live in water, soil or living
  organisms

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Sporozoans Phylum Apicomplexa

• All parasites
• Transmitted through blood-eating insects or feces

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Malaria

• One of the most deadly diseases in humans
• Caused by a protist called plasmodium
• A mosquito bites an individual and the protist is
  injected into the blood stream
• Over 100 million people have malaria
• Up to 3 million people, mostly children, die from
  it every year

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• Symptoms include severe chills, fever, sweating,
  and confusion
• Victims typically die of other related
  complications including anemia, kidney failure or
  brain damage
• Malaria and fake drugs
• http//video.google.com/videoplay?docid899708379
  4746163547qmalariatotal1547start0num10so
  0typesearchplindex3 (first 10 minutes)

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Fungus-like Protists (AKA molds)

• Two groups
• Plasmodial slime molds
• Phylum Myxomycota
• Look like oozing slime
• Absorb bacteria and nutrients as they slowly move
• Water molds
• Phylum Oomycota
• Usually feed on dead material
• Responsible for the potato famine in Ireland
  (1845-1850) that killed almost 1 million people