Protists

Classifying protists
• Easier to classify by what they are not than by what they are
• Lack all the characteristics necessary to be animals, plants, or fungi
• Kingdom Protista was created to include a diverse group of organisms.
• All protists are eukaryotes.
• Protists possess unique reproductive methods.

• Animal-like protists:
• Also called protozoans
• Heterotrophs
• Plantlike protists:
• Commonly referred to as algae
• Photosynthetic autotrophs
• Funguslike protists
• Heterotrophs, absorb their food from other organisms
• Not fungi because they contain organelles not found in fungal cells
•
PROTOZOANS: a single-celled microscopic animal of a group of phyla of the kingdom Protista,
such as an amoeba, flagellate, ciliate, or sporozoan.

ALGAE: Algae are defined as a group of predominantly aquatic, photosynthetic, and nucleus-
bearing organisms that lack the true roots, stems, leaves, and specialized multicellular
reproductive structures of plants. Their photosynthetic pigments are also more varied than those
of plants, and their cells have features not found among plants and animals.

Fungus-like protists are molds. Molds are absorptive feeders, found on decaying organic matter.
They resemble fungi and reproduce with spores as fungi do. Examples of fungus-like protists
include slime molds and water molds.

Habitats
• Protists are typically found in damp or aquatic environments.
• Protists are also found in symbiotic relationships
• A microsporidium is a unicellular protist that parasitizes insects
• Green algae grow on sloths, providing camouflage

• Microsporidia are an unusually large group of unique, eukaryotic, obligate, intracellular

parasites that biologists have studied for more than 150 years. Microsporidia are well-
adapted pathogens and important agricultural parasites that infect honeybees,
silkworms, and other insects.
Origin of Protists
• Protists might be the first type of eukaryotic cell.
• Evolutionary relationships of protists may not match current method of classification by
nutrition