Topic 6 Questions: Cryptomonads

Question 1

How do cryptomonads move and what is their primary habitat?

Answer 1

They can move via their 2 flagella or move via currents

Their primary habitat is deep cold waters
Prefer 20-22 degrees

Question 2

Describe the major features of a cryptomonad cell.

Answer 2

Ejectisomes
Nucleus
Contractile vacuole
flagella

Question 3

• What cellular features are responsible for the poor preservation of cryptomonad cells and why?

Answer 3

Ejectisomes: they are rapidly discharged into the vestibulum as a defense response
This makes them disintegrate

Question 4

• What material are the periplast plates made of? Where is the periplast located

Answer 4

numerous hexagonal, rectangular protein plates beneath and above plasma membrane

Question 5

• What is the nucleomorph and what is its origin?

Answer 5

This is a remnant of the endosymbiont nucleus and it is derived from red algae

Question 6

• Name two accessory pigments present in crytomonad cells.

Answer 6

phycocyanin and phycoerythrin

Question 7

• What is the primary mode of reproduction in this algal group?

Answer 7

asexual mitosis and cytokinesis
production of resting stages or cysts

Question 8

• Compare and contrast euglenoids with cryptomonads.

Answer 8

COMMON:
Freshwater and marine
Require vitamin B
Phagotrophic forms
Flagella emerge from apical depression
Primarily unicells
Most naked, with cell covering inside the plasma
membrane
Plastidless, colorless plastids or pigmented plastids
Plastids: by secondary endosymbiosis
Storage: granules in the cytoplasm
Have light sensitive systems
Can produce cysts
No good fossil record.

DIFFERENT:
CRYPTOMONADS
No metabolic movements
* Storage material: starch
* Different flagellar apparatus
Pigments resemble those of red algae
Commonly planktonic.