Kingdom Protista

General Characteristics

WATCH THE FOLLOWING VIDEO AND THEN USE THESE SKELETON NOTES TO FILL IN YOUR FOLDABLE:

  • Protists are eukaryotes because they all have a nucleus.
  • Unicellular organism that is not a plant, an animal, a fungus or prokaryote
  • Most containmitochondria.
  • Some protists have chloroplasts with which they carry on photosynthesis.
  • Heterotrophic or Autotrophic or both
  • Reproduce Sexually and Asexually
  • Various methods of movement
  • Most live in some form of WATER
  • A better name for Protists would be "Eukaryotes that are neither Animals, Fungi, nor Plants"
  • Because they are Eukaryotes, they are classified in the Domain, Eukarya.

Divisions of the Kingdom Protista

The Protista Kingdom is known as the "catch all" Kingdom; they are the organisms that don’t really fit in with any other Kingdom. There are 3 main groups listed below:

ANIMAL-like protists PROTOZOANS

–All are HETEROTROPHS

–grouped based on their movement.

PLANT-like protists ALGAE

– All are AUTOTROPHS

–grouped based on that they carry out photosynthesis.

–All of these protists are GREEN!

FUNGUS-like protists MOLDS

–All are HETEROTROPHS

–grouped on how they obtain food-decomposers

Animal-Like Protozoans (4 types)

1.Sarcodines

2. Zooflagellates

3. Ciliates

4. Sporozoans

The 4 phyla of this type of protist is classified on how it moves.

1.Scarcodina (EX: amoeba)

  • Use pseudopods, which are lobes of cytoplasm that extend and contract causing the organisms to move “false feet”.
  • They ingest their food by phagocytosis
  • Dysentery may be caused byamoebas. Dysenteryis an iflammationof the intestinescausingdiarrheawith blood.

2.Zooflagellata (EX: Trichonympha)

  • Move with a long whip-like tail called flagella.
  • EX: Trichonympha- African sleeping sickness
  • Spread by the bite of the tsetse fly
  • Symptoms: irregular fever, general swelling of the lymph nodes, skin eruptions, painful local swelling.
  • CNS symptoms: tremors, headache, convulsions appear and become worse:Leads to coma and death

3.Ciliphora (Ex: Paramecuim)

•Move with tiny hairs that beat in unison called Cilia.

Sporozoa

  • Can NOT move on their own.
  • Ex: Plasmodium, causes Malaria

Ecological Role of Animal Like Protists

  1. Many animal like protists live in seas and lakes, make up the start of the food chain
  2. Some live symbiotically within other organisms.
  3. Others recycle nutrients by breaking down dead organic matter. EX. Decomposers

Algae-Plant-like Protists

•They perform photosynthesis.

1. Euglena

  • unicellular
  • Live in the water (ponds, lakes)
  • Move with flagella
  • no cell wall
  • Can ingest food, when needed

2. Chrysophytes

  • Contain bright yellow
  • Generally store food as oil NOT Starch
  • Reproduce both Asexually and sexually
  • Most are solitary, but some form threadlike colonies

3. Dinoflagellates

  • Unicellular
  • Cell walls made of thick cellulose plates
  • move like a spinning top with the use of its flagella
  • cause red tides by making poisonous toxins

4. Diatoms

  • Unicellular
  • live in water, and have unique shapes.
  • Have shells made of silica, an abrasive used in tooth & metal polishes.
  • Used in pavement paint & toothpaste for its sparkle

Ecological Role of Unicellular Algae

  • Common in both fresh and salt water
  • bottom of food chain
  • Make up considerable part of the phytoplankton

Watch the following video over plant-like protists:

Multicellular organisms: most important differences involve their photosynthetic pigments

1. Brown Algae

•Largest and most complex of the algae.

•Multicelluar

•Most are marineFound in cool, shallow coastal waters

2. Green Algae

  • Share many characteristics with plants
  • Photosynthetic
  • Cellulose in their cell walls

  • Store food in form of starch
  • Found in fresh & salt water, moist areas on land

3. Red Algae

•Most are multicellular

•Able to live at great depths b/c of their efficiency in harvesting light energy

•Forms coral reefs

Human uses of algae

•Major food source for life in oceans

•“grasses of the seas” make up much of the base of the food chain

•Produce much of the Earth’s oxygen through photosynthesis

•Chemicals produced by algae utilized Ex: Treat stomach ulcers

•Rich in vitamin C and iron

Fungus Like Protist – WATCH THIS VIDEO:

•Heterotrophs absorb nutrients from dead or decaying organic matter

•Live in damp places or in water

•Mold decomposers

Classified as:

  • 1. Slime molds
  • 2 types: cellular and acellular
  • Play key roles in recycling organic material.

produce a slimy mass called plasmodium.

  • Reproduce by making spores.
  • Live in cool shady places
  • 2. Water molds live in water or moist places
  • Feed on dead organisms
  • Can be parasites on plants
  • Cell walls made of cellulose
  • Produce motile spores
  • Produce both sexual and asexual (hyphae develop zoosporangia

Ecological Role of Fungus Like Protists

•Important as recyclers of organic material…help things rot (decomposers).

•Some can harm living things: cause a number of important plant diseases Ex: mildews, and blights of grapes and tomatoes

•Fungus like Protists, the water molds helped permanently change the character of the United States.

•Potato Famine: The protist was phytophthora infestans, produces airborne spores that destroy all parts of the potato plant. Can disrupt an ecosystem and cause disease in a potato crop.

WATCH THE FOLLOWING VIDEO TO WRAP UP THE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE PROTISTA KINGDOM: