Chapter 23: Protists Flashcards
Protists are found in a wide variety of → ____
habitats
• All require → water
• Most are free living and inhabit freshwater or marine
environments
Some act as saprophytes
obtain nutrients from dead
organic material (chemoorganoheterotrophs)
• Release degrading enzymes and absorb products
through osmotrophy
Others have holozoic nutrition, ___
which involves the
ingestion of solid nutrients through → phagocytosis
Protist morphology and physiology is the
same as ________
plants and animals
• But they are mainly unicellular,
so a lot of function occurs in
just a single cell
Plasmalemma
plasma membrane of protists
• Identical to multicellular organisms
• Ectoplasm (outer gel) and endoplasma
(inner fluid) are found under the
plasmalemma
Ectoplasm
(outer gel)
endoplasma
(inner fluid)
Pellicle
is a rigid layer beneath the plasmalemma
• Acts as a supportive layer or cuticle
Vacuoles are usually found in a
protist’s _____
cytoplasm
Contractile vacuoles
osmoregularity organelle for
freshwater protists
• Constantly expelling water
Phagocytic vacuoles
sites of food ingestion in protists that
perform phagocytosis
• Some phagocytes have a
cytosome (cell mouth) and a
cytoproct (anal pore) to aid
in the entrance and exit of
phagocytized materials
Cilia or flagella are found
on many _____ at some
point in their
→ life cycle
protists
• Allow for
→ motility
• Generate water
currents for feeding and
respiration
Trophozoites
actively growing and
reproducing protists
Encystsment
formation of a → dormant cyst
• Simple structure with a → cell wall
• Form in aquatic and parasitic protists
Cysts protect against
harmful changes in the environment
(pH, low O2, desiccation, loss of nutrients)
• Acts as sites for nuclear reorganization and cell division
• For parasitic species, a cyst is the infectious stage
Excystment
is the process where a protist escapes from
the cyst
• May be triggered by better environmental conditions
Protists have both ___ and ___ reproduction in
their life cycles
asexual ; sexual
Binary fission
is the most common method of asexual
reproduction
• Nucleus divides, then cytoplasm divides during
cytokinesis
• Two identical cells form
Sexual reproduction involves _____
gamete formation
• Gametes are called ____ in protists
gamonts
Haploid gamonts fuse in a process called → _____
syngamy
Conjugation
involves the exchange of genetic material
between two individuals
• Creates a genetically distinct nucleus
Classification of protists
was historically done
based on morphology
and locomotion into four
groups:
Flagellates, ciliates,
amoebae, and
stationary
Phylogenomics
involves the analysis of genes across
many species to determine evolutionary relationships
• Lead to the creation of → supergroups