Kingdom Protista! Biology 11

Kingdom Protista Greek “protos” = first Plants, animals and fungi likely evolved from protist ancestors. “The diversity of protists represents the different experiments in the evolution of eukaryotic organization” -Campbell

“No more pleasant sight has met my eye than this of so many thousands of living creatures in one small drop of water.” -Anton von Leauwenhoek

3 Main Groups Algae (plant-like) Protozoans (animal-like) Slime molds (fungus-like)

General Characteristics: Protists vary in morphology & lifestyle more than any other group of organisms! Therefore they are a difficult kingdom to describe.

General characteristics continued… All are eukaryotes Most are aquatic All are aerobic Most are unicellular Some are heterotrophs / some autotrophs (photosynthetic)

Q: Can protists cause disease? A: Yes, some are pathogenic. –Plasmodium  Malaria –Amoeba  Dysentery –Trypanosoma  Sleeping sickness

General characteristics continued… Some capable of locomotion (protozoans) Asexual & Sexual reproduction Size varies greatly! ~0.01 mm (single celled algae) ~65 m (giant kelp)

Algae Photosynthetic autotrophs Very important to aquatic food webs Classified based on colour and structure –Golden algae (includes diatoms) –Green algae –Red algae –Brown algae (includes kelp) –Euglenoids

Protozoans Unicellular Most capable of locomotion Heterotrophs

Protozoans continued… Classified based on structure and method of locomotion –Mastigophora (aka. Flagellates) Most are parasites and cause disease –Ciliophora Includes paramecium –Sarcodina (aka. rhizopods) Includes the Amoebas –Sporozoa Not capable of locomotion

Review / Summary Kingdom Protista – Concept Map Kingdom Protista Video – Kingdom Protista Video Password - 488KCH

Diatoms (Golden Algae)

Giant Kelp

Ciliates

Euglena

Amoeba