List the characteristics shared by eukaryotes that distinguish them from bacteria and archaea.
Protists are a diverse group of organisms that includes all eukaryotes except the land plants, fungi, and animals.
With reference to synapomorphies, explain why protists are a paraphyletic group
[*] No synapomorphies define the protists. There is no trait that is found in protists but no other organisms.
live surrounded by water
Discuss how protists impact human health with a brief outline of malaria and red tides.
Explain the ecological importance of protists in aquatic food chains and the global carbon cycle.
1/2 CO2 is fixed by primary producers via photosynthesis - carbon sink
Without protists, most food chains in freshwater and marine habitats would collapse
How did the advent of electron microscopy lead to major breakthroughs in understanding the diversity of protists?
expanded our understanding of how many of these little suckers there are
Through morphological and DNA sequence comparisons it appears that Eukarya can be divided into two broad monophyletic groups. Name these two groups and the key feature that distinguishes between them.
What is direct sequencing and what has been discovered since it was directed at protists?
discovery of several new lineages of eukaryotes, tiny protists the size of bacteria.
What four features characterized early eukaryotic cells?
Contrast the structure and motion of the eukaryote flagellum with the prokaryote flagellum.
1
Discuss the evolution of the nuclear envelope.
The leading hypothesis for the origination of the nuclear envelope (and the endoplasmic reticulum) is that it is derived from the infoldings of the plasma membrane.
What are the proposed steps in the evolution of the mitochondrion?
endosymbiosis theory proposes that mitochondria originated when a bacterial cell took up residence inside a eukaryote about 2 billion years ago.
Describe five features of mitochondria that are consistent with the theory that mitochondria are endosymbiotic in origin.
Provide three examples of the diversity of composition of hard outer coverings in protists.
Multicellularity arose in many independent lineages of protists. Even some bacterial species can be said to be multicellular. In what eukaryote lineages did multicellularity independently arise?
1
Differentiate between ingestive feeding and absorptive feeding in protists.
Provide evidence for the endosymbiotic origin of the chloroplast in the Plantae lineage of protists.
Primary endosymbiosis is responsible for the chloroplasts in the Plantae lineage of eukaryotes. However, photosynthetic organelles also are found in some lineages of Excavata and Rhizaria; as well as in the Alveolata and Stramenopila. Explain the process of secondary endosymbiosis that is responsible for the existence of chloroplasts in these lineages.
Secondary endosymbiosis occurs when an organism engulfs a photosynthetic eukaryotic cell and retains its chloroplasts as intracellular symbionts. The chloroplasts from secondary endosymbiosis are surrounded by four membranes instead of two.
Describe three types of cellular motion in the protists.
Which Protists display these key features? Small sacs under plasma membrane, unicellular
Alveolata
Which Protists display these key features? Flagella covered with hairs, unicellular to multicellular
Stramenopila
Which Protists display these key features? Excavated feeding groove, lost or reduced mitochondria
Excavates
Which Protists display these key features? Lack cell walls, engulf food, pseudopodia
Amoebozoa
Which type of Protist is the following example from? Red Algae: aquatic phototrophs, absorb blue and green light Green Algae: aquatic phototrophs, absorb red light
Plantae
Which type of Protist is the following example from? Amoebas: aquatic, unicellular Cellular Slime Moulds Plasmodial Slime Moulds: decomposers in forests
Amoebozoa