Protists for Dummies

Welcome to my biology blog!

This blog is intended for my biology 11 project, so that I may learn and discover more about Protists. If you wish to journey with me in the kingdom of protists, then read on my fellow wonderer!

>> DICTIONARY.COM - how awesome thou art.

Pro-tist (prō'tĭst):

Any of a group of eukaryotic organisms belonging to the kingdom Protista according to some widely used modern taxonomic systems. The protists include a variety of unicellular,  colonial, and multicellular organisms, such as the protozoans, slime molds, brown algae, and red algae.

The sites that i used: 

http://www.slideshare.net/mrskennedy/protist-notes

this site was just great, it gave me an awesome idea of how to sort my ideas and whatnot! 

http://www.fortbend.k12.tx.us/campuses/documents/Teacher/2004/teacher_20040519_1532_4.pd

This site had some good interesting facts about animal-like, fungus-like and plant like protista. I didn't use it too much, but was a definite help.

http://www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/mag/indexmag.html?http://www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/mag/wimsmall/smal1.html

Had some awesome pics that i used, and was a great help when it came to Algae and Diatoms! Kudos.

Wow,

http://images.google.ca/imgres?imgurl=http://trc.ucdavis.edu/biosci10v/bis10v/week7/20f/Slide13.gif&imgrefurl=http://trc.ucdavis.edu/biosci10v/bis10v/week7/06algae.html&usg=__36eJajXTVz2KuwuoQZSZWYvHdZ4=&h=540&w=720&sz=43&hl=en&start=8&tbnid=4UBNGy3DS6LLOM:&tbnh=105&tbnw=140&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dbrown%2Balgae%26gbv%3D2%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DG

This is an extremelyyyy long site. But nonetheless, it was an amazing help, when i got stuck on algae! Plus it had some cool facts about them too.

http://ebiomedia.com/prod/ProtistsVideoDVD.html

Yet another great help when it came to gathering up more and more info, and finding suitable pics.

http://www.daniel-wright.district103.k12.il.us/jmay/sporozoa.html

Sweet site, helped with animal-like protists.

Not animals. Not plants. Not Fungus

Classified as:

• Free-living
• Eukaryotic
• Unicellular

There are 3 types:

1. Animal-like

2. Plant-like

3. Fungus-like

Keep on reading to learn all 

about these fascinating protists!

Ally.

ALGAE!

Red, Brown and Green

....

Red Algae

Marine algae, of the phylum rhodophyta in which chlorophyl is masked with a red or purplish pigment. They are mostly abundant in tropical seas and are capable of trapping sunlight in deep marine waters. Some can aid in reef building AND carrageenan which is used in ICE-CREAM Wooopeee! Biology at it's absolute best right there, guys. 

....

Brown Algae

Abundant in temperate seas. Algin makes up the cell wall and is used as a thickening agent in foods. Their chlorophyll is masked by brown and yellow pigments.

....

Green Algae

Grow almost everywhere and bear the greatest resemblance to land plants than any other algea. They also have the same  pigments as land plants [chlorophylls] they possess cellulose in the cell walls and store carbohydrates such as starch.

FUNGUS-LIKE PROTISTS!

• Contain parasitic molds that produce spores.
  
• Single-celled, decomposers in aquatic habitats.

Phagocytic

Lives as a  single amoeboid cell that migrate together and form spore producing structures!

....

Acellular

Help scientists study the movement of protoplasm, form plasmodia at one point in life cycle

....

Cellular

Help scientists study how cells communicate, function like a single, multi-celled organism as one point in their life cycle

ANIMAL-LIKE PROTIST!

"Protozoans"

• Unicellular & Colonial
• Eukaryotic
• Heterotrophic

Ciliates, Flagellates, Sporozoans, and Sacrodina.

DID YOU KNOW? That diseases are caused by many of these.

Ciliates:

Paramecium

Use the cilia to get around, reproduce through Binary Fission and Conjugation. Feed mostly on bacteria. Below is a picture of a Paramecium dividing using fission.

....

Flagellates:

Trychonympha

Lives in the intestines of termites (ew). Termites are actually incapable of digesting the wood that it eats. That's where the Trychonympha comes in. It makes an enzyme that will digest cellulose in the wood particles. Without this flagellate the termite would not be able to survive.*Gasp!*

 

Trypanosoma

Causes sleeping sickness in humans. It also inhabits the blood of wild+domestic animals throughout Africa. It is transmitted from one animal to another by the tsetse fly.

....

Sporozoans:

Plasmodium

Known for causing the human disease called malaria. It is most common in tropical countries. Carried from one host to another by mosquitoes. To this day, malaria continues to be a majorly common disease, affecting over 2 million people a year. 

....

Sacrodina:

Amoeba (shape-shifting!)

Most known for their "false feet" pseudopods (used to engulf or latch onto prey) which are used for locomotion and feeding. They are simply lobe-like bulges that extend from the cell membrane.  They multiply by cell division.

Biology Class

So the other day, i was sitting in Biology class, minding my own business, sitting by my buddy Janessa when suddenly Mrs. Cannon hugged me. She was displaying the example of how pseudopods engulf other organisms [her being the pseudopod, and me the organism]. So, I was pretty stoked to be part of such an epic example. Yep, made my day.

Virtual Pond Dip, Anyone?

At this point, your probably wondering what these squiggly little creatures in my jar are, and i am here to tell you just that. 

This is a Hydra. It's about 4-30 mm long (that's including their tentacles). They are usually pale brown or green. You'd usually find these  little creatures under floating weed (like Duckweed). They reproduce asexually (by budding). They can capture tiny flees using their stinging tentacles. 

This is a Daphnia. They are .5 - 4 mm in size. What i thought was kind of cool is that they actually have a beating heart, a compound eye and moving limbs. They are also available in pet shops for fish food. The females even carry live young.

This is a Spirogyra. It's slimy to touch, the fila

ments can be up to many centimeters long.

This is a Cyclops (sweet name huh? I thought so too) They are .25 - 3 mm. The female can carry a pair of eggs sacs and apparently it's a fast swimmer. It has one eye. OH and guess what? The greek mythological creature got it's name from this little fella. That is by-far the coolest thing I've learnt all day.

This is called a Rotifer. It can be about 1 mm in size and you could find these little guys attached to other plants, organisms, or just creeping on plants or mud surfaces. They move like leeches. 

This is a Desmid. They can be up to 1 mm in size. You could find these guys particularly in neutral to acidic waters. They are divided into two halves [semicells] which are often mirror images. 

This is a Actinosphaerium. You could find this little creature amongst plants [especially flat leafed ones]. As you can see, they have hair-like pseudopodia called axopodia which are often stiffened that radiate outwards. 

http://www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/index.html?http://www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/ponddip/index.html

I found this site to be very interesting, because it included a lot of pictures and fun facts. Everything on this post is from this site.

A message from the biologist

hokay, so.

I forgot my biology notes in my locker and oh how it saddens me.

=(

PLANT-LIKE PROTISTS!

....

Are:

- Single celled

- Photosynthetic

- Some are flagellated

- May live freely OR as colonies

- Phytoplankton [Producers of oxygen]

EUGLENAPHYTA:

Euglena

Pigment: Green

Body Type: Single celled

The Euglena gets around by using the whiplike structure called the flagellum. What i learnt was that it is sort of plant-like and sort of animal-like... makes it unique in it's own way. It's different from other protozoans because it has chlorophyll in it. It has a red eyespot sensitive to light.

....

Pyrrophyta:

Dinoflagellates

Some Species are able to produce their own light (bioluminescence), which ALSO makes fireflies glow (SAH-WEEET!). Also shellfish can absorb it, and if humans eat it, because of the toxins they get sick! (called red-tide).

....

Chrysophyta:

Diatoms

Important component of marine plankton and is a food source for marine animals. DID YOU KNOW? That diatoms is an important component of detergents, polishes, and paint removers? Hmm, interesting, well now you do!

Au Revoir, my friends!

Well, that brings us to the end of our journey. 

It's been fun, folks. I hope you learnt a ton, I know i did.

From a biologist in the making,

Later days!

Ally