CLASSIFICATION
Kingdom Protista:
This kingdom was introduced by Earnst Haeckel.
Initially it included all unicellular organisms which were neither plants nor animals.
However after Kingdom Monera was discovered, all the prokayotic organisms were included in it
and all unicellular eukaryotic organisms were included in Kingdom Protista.
The members of this group have characters which show affinity towards plants, animals and even
fungi.
They are predominantly aquatic in habitat, both freshwater and marine.
Locomotion can occur by pseudopodia, cilia or flagella. Whereas some may be free floating
(pelagic).
Nutrition can be autotrophic (chemotrophic and phototrophic) and heterotrophic (holozoic,
saprophytic, parasitic, symbiotic etc)
Respiration is aerobic in free-living and anaerobic in parasitic form.
Reproduction can be asexual or sexual:
Asexual: binary/multiple fission, budding, spore formation.
Sexual : 1) Syngamy (fusion of gametes). This can be of three types i) Isogamy (similar gametes)
ii) Anisogamy (dissimilar gametes) iii) Oogamy (one large non-motile, other small motile).
2) Conjugation
Protista can be sub-divided into the following three categories:
PROTISTA
Photosynthetic protists Consumer-decomposer protists Protozoan protists
Dinoflagellates Acellular slime moulds (plasmodial slime moulds) Zooflagellates
Diatoms Cellular slime moulds Amoeboid
Euglenoids protists
Ciliated
protozoans
Sporozoans
Photosynthetic protists:
Dinoflagellates Diatoms (Chrysophyta) Euglenoid
Mostly marine. Can be freshwater or marine. Freshwater and stagnant
Photosynthetic Photosynthetic pigments - chl a, chl c, β water.
pigments- chl a, chl carotene, xanthophyll (fucoxanthin). Can be photosynthetic
c, carotenoid. (chl a and chl b),
however, may turn
Cell wall made up of pectic substances and heterotrophic in absence
silica which makes it hard and indestructible. of light.
Cellulosic cell wall Cell wall is called frustule. Having 2 parts; Cell wall is absent. But
divided into plates. upper – epitheca and lower – hypotheca. have a proteinaceous
Looks like a soap case. pellicle. Pellicle
provides them structural
support and flexibility.
Presence of a pair of No flagella. Floats passively. Planktonic Flagellated organism –
flagella (phytoplanktons). usually two flagellas.
(heterokont); one
longitudinal other
transverse.
Responsible for
spinning movement
(dinos means
spinning) Single large nucleus
Nuclear membrane Single large nucleus present. present.
single layer (unique
feature). Reproduction asexual by
Reproduction can Reproduction asexual – binary fission. binary fission.
be asexual. If sexual Sexual – isogamy to oogamy. Auxospore
– isogamous or formation takes place as a rejuvenescent cell.
anisogamous. Unique features:
Red tide caused by Diatomaceous earth- It is also called as Presence of contractile
Gymnodinium and ‘pearls of ocean’. It consists of cellulose vacuole which serves for
Gonyaulax makes impregnated with silica which makes it hard osmoregulation.
the water red. and indestructible showing sculpturing and Presence of eye spot
Bioluminescence is ornamentation. They pile up at the bottom of (stigma) which acts as a
exhibited by water body and lead to formation of fossil photoreceptor.
Noctiluca, called, ‘diatomaceous earth’ over billions of Chloroplast contain
Pyrocystis etc. years. Diatomaceous earth is used in pyrenoids (protein
polishing, filtration of oils and syrups, bodies)
insulating material for refrigerator and
boilers. Eg. Euglena, Paranema.
Eg. Navicula, Pleurosigma, Amphipleura.
Consumer-decomposer protists:
Acellular slime moulds (plasmodial slime moulds) Cellular slime moulds
Wall-less mass of multinucleated protoplasm Plasmodia multicellular and have haploid
known as plasmodium. nuclei.
A diploid amoeboid cell grows, divides In unfavourable conditions (dry) these
mitotically without cytokinesis forming haploid cell aggregate to form multicellular
plasmodium. plasmodium called pseudoplasmodium.
During unfavourable conditions break up into In wet conditions haploid cells fuse to form
several spore bearing plasmodia called zygote.
fruiting bodies bearing spores (cyst or This diploid zygote undergoes meiosis to
sclerotium). form four haploid cells.
Fruiting body undergoes meiosis to form These haploid cells multiply by mitosis to
haploid gametes. Gametes may behave as from macrocysts.
flagellated swarm cell or non-flagellated This macrocysts ruptures to release spores
myxamoeba. which germinate to form solitary haploid
Fusion of these gametes results in zygote amoeboid cell.
which again grow to form plasmodium. Eg. Dictyostelium
Eg. Fuligo, Physarum.
Protozoan protists:
Zooflagellates Amoeboid protists Ciliated Protozoan Sporozoans
Most primitive Amoeboid cell type. Most highly evolved Strictly
protozoan. No flagella. Locomotion protozoan. endoparasitic.
Flagellated body. by pseudopodia. Locomotion by cilia. Locomotary
Body covered Body covered with Body covered with organs absent.
with pellicle. plasmalemma or shell. pellicle. Body covered
Contractile Contractile vacuoles Contractile vacuoles with pellicle.
vacuoles usually present. present. Contractile
absent. Free living in freshwater Free living (freshwater vacuoles absent.
Free living but or marine, even muddy or marine). Some may Parasitic.
mostly parasitic. waters. be parasitic. Eg. Plasmodium –
Eg. Trypanosoma Can be parasitic also. Unique feature: malaria,
gambiense – African Eg. Amoeba proteus (free Shows nuclear Monocystis- parasitic
sleeping sickness living) dimorphism – to earthworms.
Leishmania donovani Entamoeba histolytica – macronucleus and Eimeria – parasitic to
– kala azar Amoebic dysentery. micronucleus. cattles, poultry, dogs
Giardia intestinalis - Radiolarians – shelled Body shows high degree etc.
giardiasis group; has silica based of morphological and
framework. physiological
Foraminiferans – most specialization.
numerous, has calcareous Eg. Paramoecium
shells. caudatum (free living)
Heliozoans – has glassy Balantidium coli –
silica scales on body. ciliary dysentery