BIOL1263

Living Organisms II
Lecture 1

Introduction
Animal-like Protists
Multicellularity
Fungi

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The six-kingdom system
BIOL1263- 3 kingdoms

ARCHAEA

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ARCHAEA

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Prokaryotes to Eukaryotes

• The transition to eukaryotic cells appears to have occurred between

1.2 and 2.0 billion years ago

Hypothesized steps in the endosymbiosis of bacteria

to produce mitochondria and chloroplasts
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Kingdom
Protista
• ~50,000 spp.
• >40 phyla?
• Very heterogeneous group
• Remained at eukaryotic, unicellular level of organization
• Evolved along numerous lines through specialization of
• cellular organelles (many unique) and/or
• the skeleton (test)
• Simplicity and complexity reflected in number and nature of organelles and
skeletons
• Compare: multicellular animals (tissues and organs)
• Occur wherever moisture is present (sea, freshwater, soil)
• Most are free-living
• Many are commensal, parasitic, or even mutualistic
• Solitary or colonial forms
• Microscopic to visible
• Not simple organisms! 5
Classification
Basically four forms of animal-like
protist:

• Amoeboid protozoa*
• Flagellated protozoa
• Ciliated protozoa
• Spore-forming protozoa

*protozoa = animal-like protist

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Amoeboid-like protozoa
• Phylum Rhizopoda
• ‘Naked’ amoebae
• ‘Shelled’ amoebae

• Phylum Granuloreticulosa
• Foraminiferans a.k.a. “forams”

• Phylum Actinopoda
• Radiolarians
• Heliozoans

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Phylum Rhizopoda
“Naked forms”
• E.g. Amoeba spp. live in sea, freshwater, moist soil
• Size range – few µm to several mm
• Cytoplasm divided
• Stiff, outer ectoplasm (contracted proteins)
• Fluid, inner endoplasm (relaxed proteins)

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 Naked amoebae (cont.)
• Two types of pseudopodia (organelles)
• Lobopodia (seen in most amoebae)
• wide round/blunted tips;
tubular; ecto- and endoplasm;
feeding and locomotion
• Filopodia (seen in small amoebae)
• pointed ends; composed of
ectoplasm only
• Axopodia - locomotion
only
• Reticulopodia – feeding
and locomotyion

• Nucleus, food vacuoles, contractile

vacuoles, Golgi complex, endoplasmic
reticulum, etc. also present (few
mitochondria)

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Phylum Rhizopoda
“Shelled (testate)” forms
• Inhabit freshwater, damp soil, moss
• Shell (or test) is either
• secreted by ectoplasm (chitinoid/silaceous)
e.g. Arcella sp.
• composed of foreign materials embedded
in a (secreted) cementing matrix e.g.
Difflugia sp.
• Amoeba attached to inner wall of shell
• Pseudopodia protrude through hole in shell

Arcella sp. – common freshwater

shelled amoeba
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Phylum Granuloreticulosa
“foraminifera” (having chambers)
• “Forams” exist in great numbers at sea bottom
• Few µm – several mm in size (Numulites 50myo; 19cm!)
• Posses shells of CaCO3 (sometimes with sand reinforcement)
• Contribute to chalk formation e.g. Cliffs of Dover, UK
• Ectoplasm extends over outside of shell (c.f. shelled amoebae)
• Single chambered – unilocular
• Multichambered – multilocular
• Chambers added as animal grows
• Reticulopodia (nets) assist with food capture (diatoms, bacteria, etc)
• Extracorporeal digestion followed by internal digestion
• Majority exist as fossils e.g. Elphidium crispum
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Forams, among others, have
contributed to chalk formation on
the south of England.

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Phylum Actinopoda
• Pseudopodia
• as axopodia – pseudopodia linked
internally with microtubules
(axoneme)

• Inorganic endoskeleton
• radiating spicules of strontium
sulphate on some species
• spherical shell of silica which may
also have radiating elements
• Some are naked

• Two groups
• Radiolaria (marine)
• Heliozoa (freshwater)
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The quarries used as source material in the construction of
the Egyptian pyramids are mostly radiolarian and
foraminiferan.
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Locomotion in amoebae
• Best developed in naked amoebae
• Flowing movement allowed for by
pseudopodia (three types)
• “Front-contraction” theory
• At anterior end: endoplasmic
proteins undergo contraction to
form ectoplasm
• At posterior end: ectoplasm is
liquified during change to
endoplasm
• Animal is pulled forward by
contraction at anterior end
• Sticky surface on base of
pseudopod
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Nutrition in amoebae
• Entirely holozoic (feeding like an animal –
eating other organisms or their products)
• Phagocytosis
• Lobopodia extend around prey (e.g.
bacterium) in a cup-like fashion
• Intracellular digestion follows (GERL)
• Residual vacuole contents exocytosed
• Pinocytosis
• Ingestion of dissolved nutrients
(aminoacids, monosaccharides, etc.)
• Extracorporeal digestion
• Involves hydrolytic enzymes followed
by phagocytosis/ pinocytosis of
products
• Seen in parasitic species e.g.
Entamoeba histolytica

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Reproduction in amoebae
• Mostly asexual (binary fission)
• Sexual: hologamy – fusion followed by detachment of two
amoebae (genetic exchange?)
• Metagenesis – “Alternation of generations”
• In shelled amoebae
• Soft shells divide into two parts
• New hard shells are secreted/deposited on bud
• In Foraminifera
• Budding
• Metagenesis
• In Actinopoda
• binary fission
• Biflagellate ‘swarmers’ Fission

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Flagellated protozoa
• Flagella
• 9 +1 arrangement of
microtubules
• Longer than cilia
• Used in locomotion
• Phylum Metamonada
• Diplomonada
• Parabasalia
• Phylum Kinetoplastida
• Phylum Opalinata

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Phylum Metamonada
(‘monad’ = [cellular] unit)
• Zooflagellates with few to many flagella
• These are commensals or parasites in the guts of
animals
• Lost mitochrondria secondarily
• retain nuclear genes derived from them
• mitochondrial relics include hydrogenosomes, which
produce hydrogen, and small structures called mitosomes
(contain mito-proteins)
• Contains Diplomonada and Parabasalia

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 CLASS: Parabasalia

• An example from this class is Trichonympha sp.

• Lives in the hindgut of termites (insect)
• They have no mitochondria and have a symbiotic relationship with
the termites as they breakdown the cellulose in the wood and plant
fibres that are eaten by these termites.
Trichonympha sp. (as seen under microscope)
Rostral cap

Nucleus

Wood chips

Flagella
LECTURE 1B
Multicellularity
Fungi & Animals:
Characteristics of Fungi

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BIOL1263- Multicellular Organisms

ARCHAEA

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Plan:

• MULTICELLULARITY
• KINGDOM- FUNGI
• Characteristics

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 MULTICELLULARITY
• Limitations of a single celled organism
• Unicellular organisms are limited by size:
A mass of protoplasm becomes physiologically and structurally
ineffective if too large:

• If flattened- suffers from lack of mechanical strength.

• If spherical and size increases there is a shortage of surface area.

• Multicellular organisms are able to benefit from cellular

specialization

• Only possible at the sub-cellular level in protists.

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 Origin of multicellularity
• Multicellular organisms from an ancestral protist
• Three ways, theoretically, this could have
happened:

• Symbiotic theory
• Colonial theory
• Cellularisation theory
 1. Symbiotic theory
• Different types (species) of protists (symbiotically), form a composite
organism
• At the sub-cellular level
• eukaryotic cell formed from prokaryotes (chlorolast,
mitochondrion, nucleus, etc.) – “urkaryotes”

Some evidence to support this theory; not conclusive

• At the cellular level

• Lichens from algal and fungal partners
• Genetic problems – protists / fungi are genetically distinct organisms
• In order to reproduce the lichen disassociates; algal and fungal parts,
Reproduce separately and re-associate to form new colonies

Lichens very successful but little evidence to support this theory- Not
one organism.
2. Cellularisation theory
• Ancestral multinucleated protist evolved internal
membranous partitions around each nucleus

• Operations of each nucleus confined to discrete

regions

• Even in the extant multinucleate protists:

• No evidence of compartmentalization
• No evidence that it ever occurred

• Zelleriella sp. Flagellated multinucleate

• Chaos chaos Amoebiod “
• Division products of a single individual
could have remained together- colony
3. Colonial
• Multicellularity-via a colonial stage theory
• Hollow sphere of colonial flagellated cells
developed anterior and posterior
orientation.
• Evidence:
• More than 50% of protists form
colonies where differentiation into
distinct cell types has occurred

• Theory is favoured by
protozoologists-
• ancestral protozoan….
Choanoflagellate
Choanoflagellate
• Mitochondria and ciliary
rootlets similar to those
of metazoan cells
• Colonial
choanoflagellates
Sphaeroeca sp.

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Pterospongia sp.
KINGDOM FUNGI – 100,000 spp
• Eukaryotic, multicellular, heterotrophic organisms
with cell walls made of chitin and that reproduce via
spores.
• Body (mycelium) made up of an interwoven mass of
threadlike filaments (hyphae) that are one cell thick.
• E.g. Mushrooms, rusts, smuts, puffballs, truffles,
morels, molds and yeasts.

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What is the Largest Organism on the Planet?

Blue Whale (100ft /190 tons) Giant Sequoia tree (275ft / 6200 tons) 32
Largest organism on the planet is a FUNGUS

• Armillaria ostoyae (honey mushroom) 880 ha, 2220 acres

(3.4 sq. miles) 1,665 football fields
• largely underground (1 m thick)
• Causes root rot of trees in the area (Oregon- USA).
• Spreads through the soil underground, occasional brown
mushroom- above ground
• DNA evidence – one individual

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Fungus- Above/below ground

Honey mushroom

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List of Characteristics-
1. Eukaryotic (membrane bound nuclei ……………)
2. Body composed of thread-like hyphae (one-cell thick) which
form an interwoven mass called a mycelium. Temporary
reproductive structures (e.g. mushrooms) extend from the body
(mycelium)
3. Heterotrophic- release extracellular enzymes and feed by
absorption (break down nutrients stored in bodies or waste of
other organisms- living or dead)
4. Almost every biological material can be broken down by at least
one fungal species.
5. One predatory feeding on tiny worms in soil.

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Characteristics continued…

1.Non-photosynthetic, non-motile- filaments grow rapidly in any

direction.
2. Chitin in cell walls (n-acetyl glucosamine units)
3. Absence of motile cells at any stage of life cycle but
choanoflagellate ancestry similar to that of animals.
4. Capable of sexual and asexual reproduction. Reproduce
asexually under most conditions
5. Do not form embryos – form spores small and light and
numerous (giant puffball contains 5 trillion spores)

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Alternation of Generations in Fungi

Rapid reproduction

Genetic diversity- vigour

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Features shared with animals

• Fungi lack chloroplasts

• Heterotrophic organisms
Require pre-formed organic compounds as energy
sources.
• Produce storage compounds, including glycogen, which
is also found in animals.

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Shared with plants

• Like plants: Fungi possess a cell wall and vacuoles.

• They reproduce by (both sexual and asexual means), and
like basal plant groups (such as ferns and mosses)
produce spores.

• Similar to mosses and algae, fungi typically have haploid

nuclei.

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Unique features

• The fungal cell wall is composed of glucans and chitin;

while the former compounds are also found in plants
and the latter in the exoskeleton of arthropods
• Fungi are the only organisms that combine these two
structural molecules in their cell wall.
• Unique body form-hyphae and mycelium
• Primary decomposers
• In contrast to plants fungal cell walls do not contain
cellulose.
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 Importance of Fungi
• Ecological role- Earth’s undertakers. Almost every biological
material can be broken down by at least one fungus. Broken
down into their components: carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus
and minerals- made available to other orgs. Primary
decomposers
• Many antibiotics are derived from fungi
• Important in human food (directly eaten or used in food prep)
e.g. yeasts (make bread, wine, beer)
• Fungi + plant root association (mycorrhizae) help make
nutrients and water available to the roots

• Cause plant diseases

• Cause human diseases athletes foot, ring worm
• Produce toxins- dangerous to humans

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DEMONSTRATION MATERIAL
PROTISTA
Phylum Metamonada
(‘monad’ = [cellular] unit)
• Zooflagellates with few to many flagella
• These are commensals or parasites in the guts of
animals
• Lost mitochrondria secondarily
• retain nuclear genes derived from them
• mitochondrial relics include hydrogenosomes, which
produce hydrogen, and small structures called mitosomes
(contain mito-proteins)
• Contains Diplomonada and Parabasalia

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Example of Diplomonada
(‘diplo’ = 2 nuclei)
• Giardia intestinalis
• Discovered by Prof. Anton van
Leeuwenhoek in 1681
following a microscopic
(primitive) examination of a
smear of his own faeces
• Trophozoite (feeding stage) is
tear-shaped
• two nuclei
• 4 pairs of flagella
• Adhesive disks
• Attaches to intestinal mucosa
– covers cells
• Causes mucus diarrhoea and
malabsorption of fats and
vitamin B12
• Transmitted by cysts in water
or ano-receptive intercourse Trophozoite Cyst in stool
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Examples of a trichomonad parabasalian (‘trich’
= hair)
• Trichomonas vaginalis
• Organism (trophozoite) causes a venereal disease in humans
• Symptomatic in females - vaginitis
• Itching with white vaginal discharge – treatable (Flagyl)
• Direct transmission by sexual intercourse (no cysts)

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Phylum Kinetoplastida
(possessing a ‘kinetoplast’
• kinetoplast present
• = mass of circular mitochondrial DNA (multiple copies of genome)
• 1 or 2 flagella
• single, very long mitochondrion
• Mostly parasitic (a few free living species e.g. Bodo)

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Example of a free-living Kinetoplastid
• Choanoflagellates (=
‘collared’ flagellates)

• Freeliving
• Collar of microtubules
surround base of single
flagellum
• Solitary or colonial
• Marine and freshwater
• Cell type found in sponges
• Precursors of multi-cellular
organisms e.g. sponges?

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Example of parasitic Kinetoplastid
• Trypanosoma brucei
gambiensi
• A trypanosome ( = ‘borer’)
• Causes Sleeping Sickness in
West and Central Africa
• Transmitted by bite of
tse-tse fly (vector)
• Fly – man cycle
• Trypanosomes present in the
blood and enter the CNS (late
stage)
• Headache, drowsiness
• Enlarged lymph nodes
• Death ensues without
treatment
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Phylum Opalinata (= ‘gem’)
• Flattened, flagellated (short) gut
commensals of fish, amphibians
and reptiles
• Transmitted by cysts
• Organism’s reproduction is
synchronised with host’s
reproductive system (e.g.
tadpole/frog system)
• E.g. Zelleriella in local toad
• Look like ciliates but differ in
several respects
• All nuclei are identical
• Longitudinal fission
• No conjugation
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Nutrition and reproduction in flagellated
protozoa
Nutrition Reproduction
• Membrane transport of monomer • Longitudinal division
nutrients (diffusion/mediated transport)
• Phagocytosis in flagellar pocket
• Genetic exchange
• Trypanosomes?
• Intracellular digestion (GERL)
• Exocytosis of waste

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Phylum Ciliophora (= ‘bearing cilia”)
• Large phylum – about 7,500 species
• Marine and freshwater
• Mostly solitary or free-swimming; a few are sessile and colonial
• Locomotion by cilia (shorter and more numerous than flagella)
• Cilia = short flagella (9 + 1 arrangement of microtubules)
• Arranged in longitudinal rows – kineties (primitive forms), or have patchy
distributions (advanced ciliates)
• Each cilium arises from a basal body (kinetsosome); kinetosomes are
interconnected by fibrils (infraciliature)
• Some posses a lorica (test - secreted or adsorbed)
• At least two dissimilar nuclei – macro- and micro-nucleus
• Transverse division (asexual) and conjugation (sexual)
• Body wall is a living pellicle
• Contains vacuoles
• Trichocysts (unique organelles)
• Non-toxic – anchorage
• Toxic – prey capture
• Mucoid – lorica or cyst formation 51
Phylum Ciliophora
• CLASS KINETOFRAGMINOPHORA
• Isolated kineties bearing cilia in oral region but not compound cilia
• e.g. Didinium, Loxodes, Ephelota, Balantidium

• CLASS OLIGOHYMENOPHORA
• Numerous kineties
• Oral apparatus well developed and containing compound ciliary
organelles, e.g. ciliary 'membrane',
• e.g. Paramecium, Vorticella

• CLASS POLYHYMENOPHORA
• Oral region with conspicuous ciliary ‘membrane’ or in some cases
“Adoral Zones of Membranelles”, e.g. Stentor, Spirostomum,
Tetrahymena;
• some species possess cirri, e.g. Euplotes
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Class Kinetofragminophora
Didinium
• Raptorial ciliate
• Isolate kineties
• Feeds on Paramecium
• Utilises toxic trichocysts and
attaches
• “Like hyenas in Africa” – many attach
one larger prey animal

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 Class Oligohymenophora
Paramecium
• Free swimming and solitary
• Ciliary membrane around ‘mouth’
(cytostome)

Vorticella
• Of special note is the long "stalk", which
is attached to a substrate.
• The stalk consists of a flexible tube
containing a liquid and a contractile cord
called a myoneme
• The bell-shaped animal is in a feeding
posture, fully extended, cilia whirling to
set-up water currents that draw food
particles into the cytostome
• However, when disturbed, the fibre
contracts and the bell is pulled against
the substrate. out of harm's way.

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Class Polyhymenophora
Stentor
• The trumpet shaped body is attached
to a strand of filamentous algae.
• The animal is uniformly ciliated, with
longer cilia arranged around the
mouth of the "trumpet“ (ciliary
membrane).
• These beat in a co-ordinated manner,
creating a vortex that sweeps small
particles into the area of gullet, were
suitable ones are ingested.
• Up to 2mm long AZM

Euplotes
• Compound cilia form “ cirri” - walking
legs
• Adoral zone of membranelles
cirri
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Locomotion in Ciliophora (summary)
• Fastest moving of protozoa
• Attributable to infraciliature under pellicle
• Ciliary movevement precisely coordinated
• Metachronal waves
• Some compound cilia form cirri and allow “walking” e.g. Euplotes
• Contractile filaments seen in Vorticella (myoneme) and Stentor

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Nutrition in Ciliophora
• Free-living ciliates are holozoic
• Raptorial and ciliary (suspension) feeders
• Complete digestive system
• They posses a “mouth” – cytostome
• Anterior cytostome is primitive; lateral is advanced
• Cytostome opens into cytopharynx which leads to
endoplasm (GERL)
• an “anus” or endoproct is also present
• Trichocysts assist with food capture
• Tentacles also present in some species e.g. Acineta
• Raptorial feeding – prey ingested
• Some parasitic species e.g Trichodina – ectoparasite on fish;
Balantidium in man; Diplodinium in cattle (aid cellulose
digestion).
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