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Protists
Protists
Diversity
Big Ideas
DIVERSITY OF LIVING THINGS
Lesson 6
Learning Goals
Examine their
Explore the
importance to
biology of Protists
humans, and to
and their diversity.
ecosystems.
How are animal-like protists
different from animals; plant-like
protists different from plants;
fungus-like protists different from
fungi?
ESSENTIAL
QUESTIONS
What are the important diseases
caused by protists? How to
prevent them?
Vocabulary
Binomial
Phylogeny Taxonomy Classification
Nomenclature
‰
Kingdom Eukaryotes ‰
Order ‰
Phylogeny ‰
Phylum ‰
Plantae ‰
Prokaryote ‰
Protista ‰ s‰
Species Multicellular Animalia Autotrophes
‰
Vocabulary
DNA Epidemic
Virus Capsid
RNA Pandemic
Lysis Viroid
Transduction Gene therapy
Lysogeny Prion
Vocabulary
Binary
Transduction Endospore Conjugation
Fission
Vocabulary
Alternation
Spore Pseudopodia Flagella of
Generations
Evolution of
Protists
What's the difference between a bacterium and a simple protist?
1 2 3
Were simple A protist is a Otherwise, simple
protists the first eukaryote, so protists, like the
Paramecium and
eukaryotic each cell has
amoeba, can be
organisms to a nucleus. fairly similar
evolve? Probably. to bacteria.
Evolution of Protists
• Scientists think that protists are the oldest eukaryotes. If so, they
must have evolved from prokaryotic cells.
• How did this happen?
• The endosymbiotic theory provides the most widely-accepted
explanation. That’s because it is well supported by evidence.
According to the endosymbiotic theory, the first
eukaryotic cells evolved from a symbiotic
relationship between two or more prokaryotic cells.
In aquatic ecosystems:
Photosynthetic protists are the major producers in the
world’s oceans.
Non-photosynthetic protists are consumers, occupying
the lower levels in the energy pyramids.
Why Protists Are Important?
Protists and diseases
• Many protists are parasites—they live in, or on, other organisms.
• Protists cause some important diseases in humans, in other animals, and in plants.
• Malaria is the protist disease of greatest concern to humans which causes more than
one million deaths a year. Malaria is caused by several species of Plasmodium, a single-
celled protist.
• Sleeping sickness and amoebic dysentery.
• Giardiasis, or “beaver fever.” is a less serious disease that is of significant concern in
Ontario. Giardiasis is caused by Giardia lamblia, formed by beaver dams.