Protista
Some members of Kingdom
Protista
are unicellular, others are colonial, and yet others are multicellular.
Note that in the colonial forms, all the cells are similar with similar,
generalized functions, whereas in the truly multicellular species, the
“body” of the organism consists of a variety of types of cells, each type
with its own specialized function. These organisms are all eukaryotes (they
have a true nucleus). They all need some kind of a water-based environment
— which can be fresh or marine water, snow, damp soil, polar bear hairs —
in which to live. All are aerobic and have mitochondria to do cellular
respiration, and some have chloroplasts and can do photosynthesis. Most
of them reproduce or grow by mitosis, and some reproduce by meiosis and
fertilization. Many can form cysts in adverse conditions. Protists
are a major component of
plankton.
Protists are grouped into three major, unofficial categories
based on means by which they obtain nutrition. These are the Protozoa,
the Algae, and the Fungus-like Protists. For some reason,
botanists use the word “Division” to mean the same taxonomic level as
“Phylum”, and since, way back everything was lumped in as either a plant or
an animal, taxonomists who study Kingdom Protista (and those who study
Kingdom Fungi) also still use the word “Division” to mean “Phylum”, so for
example, when “Division Rhizopoda” is listed below, that means the same
thing as saying “Phylum Rhizopoda”.
These protists are animal-like, especially in their nutrition.
They ingest their food by
phagocytosis.
Some have mouth-like structures into which the prey are put while others use
pseudopodia
to move and to engulf prey. Typical prey include bacteria and other smaller
one-celled organisms.
- Division Rhizopoda:
-
Click for
Amoeba Movie
An example of a member of this Division is genus
Amoeba,
a fresh-water dweller. Protists in this group are unicellular and have
pseudopodia. Some secrete shells around themselves, while others do not.
None of them have flagella, cilia, or meiosis.
Entamoeba histolytica
is a
parasitic
form that causes
amoebic dysentery.
These colonize the colon and feed on bacteria, causing symptoms that range
from mild diarrhea to dysentery. Typically periods of watery diarrhea,
often containing blood, may alternate with constipation, and often there is
flatulence and abdominal cramping. Entamoeba can be directly spread
(anal sex), or indirectly spread (by drinking contaminated water). Fresh
fruits and vegetables may be unsafe if fertilized with human feces, watered
with contaminated water, or prepared by a person with it on his/her
hands.
- Division Apicomplexa:
-
Asian Tiger Mosquito (© DBF)
These are all parasites and form tiny, infectious spores. All have
complex life cycles. An example is
Plasmodium vivax,
which causes
malaria,
for which certain species of mosquitoes are the secondary host. It is also
possible to become infected with Plasmodium parasites from a
transfusion from an infected person or if a drug addict shares a syringe with
an infected person. One stage in this complicated life cycle grows in the
mosquito, the next stage in the newly-infected person’s liver, and the next
stage invades the person’s red blood cells, rupturing the RBCs as the
parasites leave to invade other cells. Symptoms include cyclical alternating
chills, fever, and sweating which at first, can be mistaken for flu. While
usually less than 1% of the RBCs are infected, often malaria causes anemia
due to the smaller number of RBCs. Often the spleen and liver become
enlarged as they try to deal with the dying RBCs. Malaria has traditionally
been treated with extract from the quinine tree. Frequently, school-aged
children in areas where there is malaria have to be treated numerous times
(if medical care is available in their area) for new malaria infections,
much like children here are repeatedly treated for colds and flu (except that
malaria is a “worse” disease). Remember that people with sickle-cell are
more resistant because when a malaria parasite enters a RBC, the RBC sickles,
killing the parasite, thereby preventing it from multiplying and spreading.
With our help, malaria is largely preventable: in many areas where malaria is
endemic, whole families traditionally sleep together on a mattress, so by
providing even one bed-net per family (at a cost of about $10 to donate to
a relief agency), the whole family, including all the especially-vulnerable
children and pregnant women, can be protected from mosquitoes biting them at
night.
- Division Zoomastigophora:
-
Trypanosoma gambienese
This Division contains some organisms which are free-living, others which are
symbionts,
and yet others which are parasites. An example of a symbiotic member of
this Division is the protozoans which live in the gut of termites and digest
cellulose in the wood the termites eat. An example of a parasitic form
would be
Trypanosoma gambiense,
which causes African sleeping sickness and is spread by the bite of
the tsetse fly. Symptoms include irregular fever, general swelling of the
lymph nodes, skin eruptions, and areas of painful local swelling. Eventually
CNS symptoms like tremors, headache, apathy, and convulsions appear and
become worse, leading to eventual coma and death. Early on, the parasites
are found in blood and lymph, but later only in the person’s cerebrospinal
fluid.
- Division Ciliophora:
-
Click for
Paramecium
Movie
An example of an organism in this Division is
Paramecium.
These protozoans are solitary, fresh water organisms and use cilia to move.
They have probably the most complex structure and organization of all cells.
Rather than one nucleus, they have a larger macronucleus and several
smaller micronuclei. They use a form of sexual reproduction called
conjugation in which some of the micronuclei are exchanged between
the two individuals involved.
Algal Protists
These protists are photosynthetic; their nutrition is
plant-like (they do photosynthesis to provide their own food). Almost all
of them have chlorophyll A, most have chlorophyll C, but only a few have
chlorophyll B. They also have a variety of carotenoids and other pigments,
and frequently they are grouped into Divisions based on similarities in
pigments.
- Division Dinoflagellata:
- These are abundant in plankton, occasionally occurring in large numbers.
They can occasionally become so numerous that the water looks red, thus this
algal bloom (meaning there are large numbers of them, having nothing
to do with flowers, which they do not have) is called Red Tide.
Because Dinoflagellates are toxic to humans, it is not safe to eat
“shellfish” (clams, etc.) collected where Red Tide is occurring (the
Protists get inside the clam shell and cannot be easily removed).
These Dinoflagellates are
bioluminescent,
that is, they are able to produce light like lightening bugs, and at night
during Red Tide, the crests of the ocean waves appear to glow in the
dark.
- Division Euglenophyta:
-
Click for
Euglena Movie
Probably the best-known example of this Division is genus
Euglena.
Each of these organisms has a
flagellum
on its
anterior
end, and this is used to propel the organism. They have chloroplasts and,
when in the light, do photosynthesis. If they are not in the light, they
can also obtain nutrition by phagocytosis. To help them sense light (which
they then move toward), Euglena have a light-sensitive “eyespot” or
stigma
near their anterior ends. This is not a true eye, in that it
cannot do any image formation, but rather it is a
photoreceptor
which senses the light level in the organism’s environment.
- Division Chlorophyta:
- These protists are also known as the “green algae.” Their chloroplasts
and the pigments therein are similar to plants (this is about the only group
of algae with chlorophyll B), thus it is thought that the green algae may be
the evolutionary ancestors of plants. Various species of green algae may be
found in a variety of environments including both fresh and salt water, damp
soil, the surface of snow, and within other organisms (lichens, hydra, polar
bear hair).
Click for
Chlamydomonas
Movie
Chlamydomonas
are unicellular and contain an eyespot (stigma), a chloroplast, two flagella,
and a nucleus.
Click for
Volvox Movie
Volvox
are colonial and often contain darker green daughter colonies inside.
Each cell posesses two flagella, enabling the colony to be mobile. There
is an intercellular matrix holding the colony of cells together.
Ulva
is called Sea Lettuce. This is truely multicellular, with a division of
labor among the various cells, and is macroscopic. The “body” is two
cells thick, and there is a specially-modified “holdfast” to anchor the
organism to the ocean floor. Its life cycle includes both 1n and 2n
stages (see below).
Click for
Closterium Movie
Closterium
is a member of the sub-group called the Desmids. Some desmids
form colonies, but Closterium is solitary. Its nucleus is in the center
with a cone-shaped chloroplast on each side. Each chloroplast contains a
series of starch-storage organelles called
pyrenoids
In living Closterium, each end of the cell bears a small vacuole
containing several gypsum grains which “dance” by Brownian motion.
Click for
Spirogyra Movie
Spirogyra
are colonial, being organized into long filaments. Each cell contains a
spiral chloroplast with pyrenoids (used to store starch) and a nucleus.
They have
conjugation
— a type of sexual reproduction in which the contents of the male gamete
cell go over into the female cell.
Alternation of Generations
Many green algae, especially the multicellular ones, have both sexual and
asexual stages in their life cycles, thus we must re-introduce the idea of
Alternation of Generations we discussed along with meiosis. When we
first discussed Alternation of Generations, we looked at a very simple
diagram in which adults produced 1n gametes by meiosis, and those gametes
joined by syngamy to form a new 2n generation. In reality in algae and
plants, there are a few more stages in the process, thus we now need to
re-visit this cycle. The 2n generation, which in humans is called an
“adult,” in algae and plants is called a
sporophyte
because it produces spores. Within specialized reproductive structures
in/on the bodies of the sporophyte, meiosis occurs to reduce the chromosome
number from 2n to 1n, thus the spores which are produced are 1n. Each spore
germinates and grows into a new, independent, 1n organism (which often looks
totally different than the 2n generation). These 1n organisms are called
gametophytes
because they produce the gametes (eggs and sperm), which are still 1n. An
egg and sperm unite by
syngamy
increasing the chromosome number from 1n to 2n, and forming a
zygote
which is 2n. The zygote grows into the sporophyte, and the cycle starts
over. Various of the green algae go through this cycle as do members of the
next two groups, the brown and red algae. Plants also go through this same
cycle with some interesting modifications we will discuss later.
- Division Phaeophyta:
- These organisms are commonly known as the “brown algae.” They are
multicellular and live in marine, temperate zone, costal areas. They all
have a form of sexual reproduction with alternation of generations. One
member of this Division with which you may be familiar is Kelp, which
actually can be any of several species of seaweed in the genera Fucus
and/or Laminaria. Brown algae are used in many cultures as human
food, and are good sources of iodine. We need iodine for our thyroid glands,
and if a person doesn’t enough iodine in his/her diet (most commonly in
inland areas where iodine is not added to salt), the thyroid
gland enlarges in an attempt to keep making enough thyroid hormone (which
doesn’t do any good because what it’s lacking is the iodine needed to make
the hormone). This enlarged thyroid is called a goiter.
Laminaria
also has an interesting gynecological use. If a woman is scheduled
for some medical procedure for which the doctor needs access to the inside of
her uterus, often a day or so beforehand, rolled-up, dried pieces of
Laminaria are inserted into the opening of the woman’s cervix. As
the seaweed absorbs water from her body fluids, it gently and slowly expands,
gradually stretching the cervix. Thus, by the time her surgery is scheduled,
her cervix has been dilated slowly and gently rather than the doctor having
to forcibly and quickly (thus painfully) stretch the cervix open minutes
beforehand.
- Division Rhodophyta:
- These are called the “red algae.” They also are multicellular and
marine-dwelling, but are more typically found in tropical zones and deeper
in the ocean. They also go through alternation of generations, Many of
these (such as the Nori used in sushi) are used by humans as food, and are
also good sources of iodine.
Fungus-like Protists
- Division Myxomycota:
- These organisms are called “slime molds.” They are fungus-like in their
nutrition in that they absorb nutrients from their environment. Their
“body” structure is unusual in that the nuclei undergo mitosis, but there is
no cytokinesis — there are no individual cells with one nucleus each. Rather,
the “body” is a giant, multinucleate mass of cytoplasm. Slime molds are
mobile: they move by amoeboid movement, in other words, like a giant
Amoeba with giant pseudopodia. They live in decayed wood and move around in
between the fibers, ingesting bacteria, etc. by phagocytosis. Slime molds
are often brightly-colored (yellow or orange).
Copyright © 1997 by J. Stein Carter. All rights reserved.
This page has been accessed times since 15 Mar 2001.