Lecture 7 Microbial Life: Protists

PowerPoint Lectures for

Campbell Biology: Concepts & Connections, Seventh Edition
Reece, Taylor, Simon, and Dickey

© 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Lecture by Edward J. Zalisko

 PROTISTS

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Protists are an extremely diverse assortment of
eukaryotes
 Protists
– are a diverse collection of mostly unicellular eukaryotes,
– may constitute multiple kingdoms within the Eukarya,
and
– refer to eukaryotes that are not
– plants,
– animals, or
– fungi.

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Protists are an extremely diverse assortment of
eukaryotes
 Protists obtain their nutrition in many ways. Protists
include
– autotrophs, called algae, producing their food by
photosynthesis,
– heterotrophs, called protozoans, eating bacteria and
other protists,
– heterotrophs, called parasites, deriving their nutrition
from a living host, and
– mixotrophs, using photosynthesis and heterotrophy.

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Figure 16.13A

Autotrophy Heterotrophy Mixotrophy

Caulerpa, a green alga Giardia, a parasite Euglena

Protists are an extremely diverse assortment of
eukaryotes
 Protists are found in many habitats including
– anywhere there is moisture and
– the bodies of host organisms.

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Figure 16.13B
Protists are an extremely diverse assortment of
eukaryotes
 Recent molecular and cellular studies indicate that
nutritional modes used to categorize protists do not
reflect natural clades.
 Protist phylogeny remains unclear.
 One hypothesis, used here, proposes five
monophyletic supergroups.

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EVOLUTION CONNECTION: Secondary
endosymbiosis is the key to much of protist
diversity

 The endosymbiont theory explains the origin of

mitochondria and chloroplasts.
– Eukaryotic cells evolved when prokaryotes established
residence within other, larger prokaryotes.
– This theory is supported by present-day mitochondria and
chloroplasts that
– have structural and molecular similarities to
prokaryotic cells and
– replicate and use their own DNA, separate from the
nuclear DNA of the cell.
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Figure 16.14_s1

Primary
endosymbiosis

Evolved into
Cyanobacterium chloroplast

1 Nucleus
Heterotrophic
eukaryote
Figure 16.14_s2

Primary
endosymbiosis
Green alga
Chloroplast
Evolved into
Cyanobacterium chloroplast

2
3 Autotrophic
1 Nucleus eukaryotes
Heterotrophic
eukaryote

Chloroplast
Red alga
Figure 16.14_s3

Primary
endosymbiosis
Green alga
Chloroplast
Evolved into
Cyanobacterium chloroplast

2
3 Autotrophic 4 Heterotrophic
1 Nucleus eukaryotes eukaryotes
Heterotrophic
eukaryote

Chloroplast
Red alga
EVOLUTION CONNECTION: Secondary
endosymbiosis is the key to much of protist
diversity

 Secondary endosymbiosis is
– the process in which an autotrophic eukaryotic protist
became endosymbiotic in a heterotrophic eukaryotic
protist and
– key to protist diversity.

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Figure 16.14_s4

Primary Secondary
endosymbiosis endosymbiosis
Green alga
Chloroplast
Evolved into
Cyanobacterium chloroplast

2
3 Autotrophic 4 Heterotrophic 5
1 Nucleus eukaryotes eukaryotes
Heterotrophic
eukaryote

Chloroplast
Red alga
Figure 16.14_s5

Primary Secondary
endosymbiosis endosymbiosis
Green alga Remnant of
Chloroplast green alga
Evolved into
Cyanobacterium chloroplast
Euglena

2
3 Autotrophic 4 Heterotrophic 5
1 Nucleus eukaryotes eukaryotes
Heterotrophic
eukaryote

Chloroplast
Red alga
Chromalveolates represent the range of protist
diversity
 Chromalveolates include
– diatoms, unicellular algae with a glass cell wall
containing silica,

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Figure 16.15A
Chromalveolates represent the range of protist
diversity
 Chromalveolates include
– diatoms, unicellular algae with a glass cell wall
containing silica,
– dinoflagellates, unicellular autotrophs, heterotrophs,
and mixotrophs that are common components of marine
plankton,

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Figure 16.15B
Chromalveolates represent the range of protist
diversity
 Chromalveolates include
– diatoms, unicellular algae with a glass cell wall
containing silica,
– dinoflagellates, unicellular autotrophs, heterotrophs,
and mixotrophs that are common components of marine
plankton,
– brown algae, large, multicellular autotrophs,

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Figure 16.15C
Chromalveolates represent the range of protist
diversity
 Chromalveolates include
– diatoms, unicellular algae with a glass cell wall
containing silica,
– dinoflagellates, unicellular autotrophs, heterotrophs,
and mixotrophs that are common components of marine
plankton,
– brown algae, large, multicellular autotrophs,
– water molds, unicellular heterotrophs,

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Figure 16.15D
Chromalveolates represent the range of protist
diversity
 Chromalveolates include
– diatoms, unicellular algae with a glass cell wall
containing silica,
– dinoflagellates, unicellular autotrophs, heterotrophs,
and mixotrophs that are common components of marine
plankton,
– brown algae, large, multicellular autotrophs,
– water molds, unicellular heterotrophs,
– ciliates, unicellular heterotrophs and mixotrophs that
use cilia to move and feed,
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Figure 16.15E

Mouth
Chromalveolates represent the range of protist
diversity
 Chromalveolates include
– diatoms, unicellular algae with a glass cell wall
containing silica,
– dinoflagellates, unicellular autotrophs, heterotrophs,
and mixotrophs that are common components of marine
plankton,
– brown algae, large, multicellular autotrophs,
– water molds, unicellular heterotrophs,
– ciliates, unicellular heterotrophs and mixotrophs that use
cilia to move and feed, and
– a group including parasites, such as Plasmodium, which
causes malaria.
© 2012 Pearson Education, Inc.