Exploring the Diversity of Protists

Hi class, Dr. Jim here. In this video lecture we are actually going to look at the diversity of the protists. What I like to call the kingdom of the junk drawer. And so when we find organisms that we really don't know how they fit into the world or the realm of different organisms, they are not really plants, they are not really animals, and they are not really fungus, we kind of throw them into this kingdom called the protists. And the protists have many different organisms that are somewhat animal-like, somewhat plant-like, and some that are fungi-like. And so these guys kind of get put in kind of like your junk drawer at home, where you have these organisms that you really don't know what to do with, and you just stick it in the junk drawer, and hopefully it organizes itself. And that's kind of what we see here in these different groups. And so that's what we're going to be looking at in this lecture today, is actually looking at some of these different organisms that are out there that have these many qualities like these other organisms that we have. specific kingdoms for, but they really don't fit into those kingdoms as nice and easy as we'd like them to. And so that's why we throw them in their own kingdom called the Protista. All right. So the first thing we're going to look at is identify the members of the kingdom Protista. And like I said, it's kind of like the junk drawer of the biology world. Okay. So all the members of the kingdom Protista consist of Eukaryotic cells. So they're all Eukaryotes. Okay. In order to understand that, and they all have interesting qualities. So there are some that are plant-like and we call these the algae. And you're going to see some of these today, both microscopically, the Spirogyra you might see, and the other stuff you might see is some of the seaweeds that we actually have in the jars. And so they can be either very small or actually very large. Some of the other ones are animal-like and we call these the protozoans. And the protozoans are a lot of these microscopic, they're very animal-looking, they have to eat to survive. And a lot of them we talk about as parasites because they can be human parasites either drinking contaminated water. Sometimes they're animal born by actually getting them by infection through either bites from mosquitoes or other arachnids or other things like this. And then the other type that we can get is actually STDs and things like this. And so we'll talk about all these wonderful things that you can possibly get from the protozoans. And then the last one are the fungi, like which are the water and slime molds. And some of you may actually have seen these if you've ever been out and just kind of walked the forest floor, maybe at your own house, and you kind of looked at this thing and you're like, whoa, what is that? It looks like someone threw up all over. And it really isn't throw up. That actually is a slime mold or a fungal-like protist that is out there. And we'll take a look at that as well. So lots of different organisms in this. And again, there isn't one specific type of thing that makes them. what is, why they're in the protist world. Okay. So again, the kingdom protista vary in size from very small to very large. And so we'll see these very small ones in the lab today where you guys are going to use the microscope to look at them. And then you're going to see these ones in the jars that are actually quite large. And if you look at the seafloor, they can be meters upon meters in size. And so they can be very large. You think they're plants, but they're actually a protist. They acquire nutrients in many ways. So the algae are like plants and they photosynthesize. So they have pigments in them that allow them to absorb the energy from the sun. The protozoan are heterotrophic, meaning they have to eat like animals. And so we'll see what those are. The slime molds creep along the forest floor. And again, they decompose things. They're kind of like the fungus in which they do is they kind of move along and they decompose dead plants and bacteria and other things. And then we'll also look at some of the protozoans that are actually parasites. And a lot of the protozoans that we're going to talk about today are parasites. And we'll... will get into why they are. Now most of the protists do asexual reproduction by mitosis but there are some that undergo sexual phases where they actually make male and female gametes and then come back together. But in most cases we're going to talk about asexual reproduction which is the budding or mitosis and then some do have separate sexes and then come together in the form of fertilization or sexual reproduction. So I'll point that out if it does come up during our video. Okay, why do we care about the protists? Well, there's a lot of different things that can happen. Well, probably the biggest one that we all worry about is disease. And so a lot of these guys can cause disease. One of the major protozoans that are out there is the one that causes malaria, and we'll talk more about that. Some give off oxygen and function as producers, and so they're very important. They produce more oxygen than all the green plants that we have growing on the ground. And so these guys are vital to not only the food web of the oceans, but also for the oxygen production that occurs on this planet. Okay, another thing that they do, and many of you probably don't realize this, but when you use toothpaste or ice cream, a lot of the things that are in those products are actually taken from protists. And so diatoms are found in toothpaste used as a scouring agent to brush your teeth. And then some of the LGs that we use actually we take and put into ice cream to make it the texture and stay together a lot better. And so you'll see that as well. And then finally some of them are actually symbiotic and symbiotic relationships. And one example is a coral reef where you have many different organisms all working together as one. And so this is really important especially for aquatic life and that where you see these protists all working together and providing a lot of the ecology and food web and cycles throughout the world. So they're very important, lots of different things that the protists do. So the first one we're going to do is look at the autotrophs. So we're going to specifically look at some of the autotrophs and kind of point out some of the ones you might actually see in the lab when you do the lab this week. And so why are they called autotrophs? Well, that's basically saying you breathe in CO2 and then make carbon molecules or organic molecules using that CO2. And so that's why they can do that. And that's what they're called autotrophs for. Okay. Now, algae are characterized by the type of pigment they possess, and they use that pigment to photosynthesize sunlight. So it's what color you see is what gets reflected back. So we describe the algae either as red algae, brown algae, or green algae. And again, it's kind of like what pigment do you see reflecting back at you. If you see the green, they're the green algae. If you see a brownish color, they're the brown. And if they're red, they're red. Pretty easy in that sense. We also have the diatoms, which are these... Creatures that basically have these hard shells on the outside and anything with diatomaceous earth is called diatoms or diatomaceous earth. And so if you see this a lot of times in products and I'll bring that up later on. And then finally these dinoflagellates which are actually they kind of look like animal cells but they actually can photosynthesize and do some other things. And these are responsible for a lot of the algae blooms that you see on the water. These red tides which can cause very toxic conditions and kill a lot of. wildlife and fish and other things like that so we'll talk about those more as we go through but I just want to kinda give you a breakdown of where we're going with all these different things and so the first group is the green algae and they're very closely related to plants in fact a lot of people will organize these and kinda consider these the primitive plants that plants arose from these guys and formed more specific structures to deal with it so these guys all have chlorophyll They all have cellulose cell walls like plants do and a lot of them store the reserved food as starch. The only difference is that a lot of times you see these as single cellular or sometimes you see them multicellular, but they're not as defined as a plant cell would be. But you do see nuclei, you'll see chloroplasts and other things in there. They are eukaryotic, they're just not as well defined as plants. The ones you're going to look at in lab, so this one's a really cool one, it's called Spirogyra. And so some of you may have heard the group Spirogyra and they take it from this organism. And basically it gets its name for the spiral shape of their chloroplasts. And you'll see this in the lab and they're kind of cool looking. And a lot of times you'll see these filamentous cell walls that they have and then the chloroplasts that will go in and out of the different cells and it's actually in a spiral shape. And we actually have live ones to look at this week, so make sure you look at those. the class. Another one is called the Yulva, which is the sea lettuce. If you like sushi, you might eat this sometimes. The sea lettuce or the California rolls a lot of times are wrapped in this. And so green algae, they kind of look like plants and they should be plants, but they're really not because they're the protists. And again, they don't have the specific structures that plants do, and that's why they're different. Another one is the char. And a lot of times you see this in the freshwater ponds that we have. all about throughout Wisconsin. So sometimes you'll go into these lakes and ponds and like Pewaukee Lake or maybe Little Muskego or some of these other ones and you'll see that they seem like they have all kinds of weeds. Well, they're not actually weeds. They're actually these protists that grow and look like weeds. And so they accumulate all over and they grow very well in these ponds where you have slow moving water, warm water and allows them to flourish. Okay. The other one that you'll see in the lab this week is the volvox. And these are kind of cool because... These are not, each one of these are actually an individual organism. And a lot of times what you'll see is these colonial cells together. And so they look like these big, large balloons, green balloons that have these little smaller balloons on the inside. And definitely take a look. You'll see these a lot. And you'll actually see them moving around in the water. And they're really kind of cool. So take a look at these things. And, you know, again, we're not going to ask you about specifics. We'll never ask you what is this on the microscope. But we really want you to have an idea of the difference between a green. a red and a brown obviously you can tell by the color and that stuff so make sure you know green red and brown but don't you don't necessarily know specifics in in those senses and like what a ball box or a char and things like that are okay Now, the red algae are the ones that have red pigments. And so these guys, again, are utilized for a lot of different things. Some of them provide agar. And that agar can be used for some of those gel caps that we take for drugs and other things. And these are found in pills. A lot of times we use it for nutrient agar for bacterial growth. Those gels that we ran, and I showed you what they were during the molecular biology, they're made from these seaweed. And again, they can be used as an anti-drying agent as a preservative in baked. goods and again used as a wrap in sushi. So these things can be utilized in a lot of different things. And these are the red algae because they have the red pigment. Okay, here's one typical red algae. You see this in warm seawater. Now the third group that we look at is the brown algae. And they're brown because they kind of have this brown pigment. And these can be either small or large seaweed. So we associate these typically with the large seaweed that you seed in the seed. And the most common type that you probably are referring to is kelp. And kelp is a delicious seaweed that a lot of people eat, again, with sushi and things like that. And people use that as a way to get some of their nutrients and that stuff. And, again, it is an important food and important in the food web. And so it can be used both for fish and for humans to eat. And, again, another thing that's utilized, probably something you didn't realize, is the algin that's in these materials provides stability and smoothness in ice cream, sorbet, and cream cheese and other foods. So it provides you some. texture and some quality in your ice cream that you eat every day. And so you probably didn't know it, but now you do that. Your ice cream is loaded with algae. Okay. And here's some different strains that you're going to see. And so you'll see the fucus, you'll see the neurosisis, and then you'll see the giant kelp and the laminaria in the class itself this week. And so we have these in the jars. They're quite large and some of them can get very, very large. And again, we have the smaller versions in the jars. So make sure you look at all the different jars. And again, we have green algae, red algae, and brown algae. And so you're going to look at all three types in the lab this week. So make sure you look at all those things. Now, another group are called the golden brown algae, and these are called diatoms. And diatoms are given the name because they're actually very tiny. They're microscopic, and you're going to look at these on the slide. We have prepared slides and live stuff for you to look at. And these guys have a lot of these shells associated. They have these calcified shells that are with them. And what they do with these shells are actually provide a really good scouring agent for things. And so we utilize these diatoms in toothpaste. So the next time you look at your toothpaste, look to see if it has diatomaceous earth in it. And if it does, what you're actually putting on your teeth are little diatoms to help scour the teeth. And we see this also in things like sandpaper, soundproofing, sometimes in filtering agents. And they do a really good job because of the scouring abrasive. of their shells. And so that's why we use them. And again, the typical one you're going to see is the diatom. And we're going to look at these again under the microscope this week in the lab. Now, the last group of the algae are called the dinoflagellates. And these guys are interesting because they actually have flagella. So these are kind of like plant cells that move. They have a hard shell like the diatoms do, the calcium shell, but they also have flagella and allows them to move. They are phytoplankton, meaning that they can absorb light through or sunlight. using their pigments and again they mostly have chlorophyll but again it allows them to move and again one of the things we see associated with these things not only as symbionts with coral but they're responsible for the red tides that you hear about and sometimes you'll hear about these things where you get these algae blooms that release these red tides and so these red tides get released out and they kill a lot of fish it's not particularly wonderful I wouldn't recommend swimming in these things because you can actually get sick from the toxin that they produce as well And so that's the important thing. It produces cell toxin that can get you really sick and again kill a lot of lot of fish and things like that. And here's a picture of the red tie. I'm sure this boater is not really pleased because it probably stinks like dead fish and other things. But this is what you would see this red balloon going on and these are due to the dinoflagellates that have really robust and a lot of times it's due to stagnant really warm water. So there's days when it's really hot and humid and again not a lot of wind. That's when you see these things bull them up because they don't have anything to push them around or move them around from. Now the next group of protists that we're going to look at are the protozoans. And these are the animal-like ones. These all have to eat in order to survive. The protozoans are basically divided by the way that they move or the locomotion or if they form spores. So the first groups are the ones that have flagella. The second groups are the ones that kind of crawl around and have those pseudopods, and they move like the little amoebas. So they stick out these little attachments, and they crawl themselves forward, kind of like a blob. The third group have cilia, and these are the hair-like structures that allow these things to whip around. And then the fourth group that we'll look at are the spore formers. And these guys make spores, and then you can ingest them and actually get you sick. And so most of the organisms I'm going to talk about here. are going to be the ones that actually cause human disease because a lot of these guys are associated with the parasites and we don't really care about so much the ones that are free living and don't bother us. The ones we worry about are the ones that cause disease. So I'm going to bring those up today. Okay. So again, there are some that are free living in the water, but others are human pathogens or parasites that we'll look at as well. Okay. So the first group is the zooflagellates, and again, there's a number of different types that cause disease. The first one are the trypanosomes, which are blood parasites that are passed by biting flies. Typically, you see this in South America or in Africa, and these cause a variety of diseases like African sleeping sickness or Chagas disease, which is found in South America. And these are both blood diseases that you can get by this parasite being in your blood. Another one that's actually found in the United States is Giardia, and Giardia actually can be found in contaminated water. So when water is unpure, a lot of times you get these parasites growing in them. You drink the water, and then you get a parasite infection. And so this is very common in the United States, and again, it's due to drinking in contaminated water. Another guy that we worry about is Trichomonas. And Trichomonas is actually one that causes an STD and can be passed from one person to another through sexual contact. and contact and so it can cause infection that way. The last group that I'll show you pictures of are the Euclidina and they're kind of interesting because these are free living. And the reason why we look at these things is because they're loaded with chlorophyll and but they eat and they also move around by flagella. So they're kind of a mixed master, kind of like the platypus where they have plant like structures with the chloroplasts. They eat like an animal and they move like an animal with the flagella. And so we'll look at these as well. So the first guy. It's the trypanosomes, and again, these get transmitted by a bite from these tsetse flies, which you see in Africa, and they can cause disease. It's a blood-borne disease in which you get sick, you have this reoccurrence of fever, and then you can slip into a coma and eventually die if you don't get it treated. And so that's one of the diseases that's caused by these. Another one is giardia, and giardia looks kind of like these little... suckers that will get in through the water they get into your intestine and cause you to have severe diarrhea so it's not a fun disease to have again you'll be sitting on the pot for a while and that stuff but eventually your body will clear it it doesn't get too invasive it doesn't get into your intestines and break through or anything like that but it can cause you some gastrointestinal distress for a couple of days and cause you some pretty bad diarrhea another guy is the aglenoids and again the aglenoid is one that has a pro or is is a produce that has both plant like in like you're gonna see these is this week in class and that they have the chloroplast but they move around with flagella and they actually will eat as well so they have chloroplasts they move around and you guys are going to see them this week and so here you can kinda see they have these chloroplasts on the inside they have the long flagellum and short flagellum and again they also can eat on the inside. So they can do a little bit of everything. So that's kind of why they fit in the protist category really well. Where do you put them? Plants, animals? Well, they do both. Okay. The next group is the protozoans with pseudopods. And the ones we worry about are these amoebas. And most of them are free living, don't bother us at all. But there are some that can cause some dysentery in about 10% of the world's population. So I'm talking the world, 10% actually have these swimming around in their intestines. and they have a chronic diarrhea associated with them and so they cause amoebic dysentery and people just live with it they don't know how to treat it because they don't have the medical care and they just live with the constant bouts of diarrhea that are associated with it there are some amoebas that can actually get into your brain and that's by either drinking water or getting water in the nose and they work their way through the nose into the brain or you suffer traumatic injury like through your eye or to your nose by getting a stick dabbed in there and that will force these amoebas into your brain. It doesn't happen very often, but it can occur. And so I just wanted to put that out, that there are some amoebas out there that actually can cause disease. But typically, most of them are associated with a type of dysentery. The third group is the protozoan, which have the cilia. And you're going to see these this weekend. You actually have to use a frozen slide to look at these things because these guys move so fast. You're going to be like, whoa, what happened? It just flew right by. And they're really cool to look at. Sometimes they're kind of gross. And probably some of the girls out there will be like, oh, this is gross or whatever. But they're really kind of cool organisms because they zip along in the water. And we find these in ponds and lakes all the time. It probably will make you think about swimming in a pond and lake again, thinking about all the organisms that are actually in there. But these are really kind of cool. They move around. You can actually see these guys moving around and floating around this week in the lab. Very cool. Definitely highly recommend seeing these things. And again, they have a lot of different parts to them. Cool thing is that they have this kind of this oral groove where they eat. And so you can watch the cilia and you can watch these smaller guys, these smaller protists and bacteria get swallowed up by these things. And so you can watch them feed and everything else. And so they have a lot of different cool structures to them. Most of them are single cell. And so you see them zipping around, but they're actually quite large. So again, take a look at them this week in the lab. This is what a paramecium looks like under electron microscope. So you can see they have some vacuoles. They have that oral groove where they can feed. You can see the food vacuoles. And you can see these little hairs that surround them. And those cilium not only help them move, but they help them feed. So they can filter feed and bring things into their oral groove as well. All right. Here's another one that had the cilia. Another one that's actually eating another paramecium in this case. So this is kind of a cool slide. And then we've seen the Stentor, I think if you remember that video that I showed you on YouTube that has both the flagella and cilia and you're watching these things eat. And they kind of look like little trumpets sticking out of the water. And what they do is they attach and then they filter feed off of anything that comes in. And they kind of act like a vacuum cleaner and they suck things in and bring it in and eat it and things like that. So most of these guys don't cause disease, but they're kind of interesting to look and watch and kind of see how they work. Now, the last group that I was talking about with the protozoans are the ones that form spores. And there's a few of them that actually cause disease. And the first one is called pneumocystis carnii. And again, they cause a type of pneumonia. So some people will get, especially if their immune system is weakened. Another one that probably pregnant women have heard of before, so if you've ever had a kid, and they've told you not to change the kitty litter, this is why, the Toxoplasma gondii. because kitty cats have these in their intestines and these are natural reservoir of these things and if you change the kitty litter you can get these in the air and then swallow them and they end up and they don't really hurt the person that they swallow but they can travel into the fetus and actually hurt and kill the fetus another guy that we worry about is plasmodium this is the species that causes malaria and they're really four that we worry about and kill more people in the world than any other parasitic infection So kind of think of that. And then good old Cryptosporidium, which made Milwaukee famous for bad reasons. In 1993, Milwaukee had an outbreak of crypto in their water supply and it killed about 200 people. And those were again, the very young, the very old and the immunocompromised. Most people just had to deal with severe diarrhea for about a week. They got over it and finally got better. But again, made Milwaukee famous for not the beer and cheese, but for parasitic infection. And so again, pneumocystis carnii, it's a lung infection. You breathe this in and you breathe in the spores and it develops in the lung. Where we see this a lot of times are in immunocompromised people, especially in AIDS patients. And that is one of the leading causes is death in AIDS patients because they actually get this in their lungs and their body can't fight off the infection and then they succumb to the infection. So that's one of these guys. Another one is the toxoplasma. And again, toxoplasma is spread through a number of different reservoirs. Cats get it in their digestional tract, and so they can put it into the kitty litter because the cysts are shed in the feces. If a human changes that litter, they can get in contact with it and swallow it. And again, it really doesn't do too much to the human that swallows it, but where it can cause problems is that it passes to the fetus and can cause a lot of problems there, including premature abortion, can cause developmental issues, and some other problems that can occur and have some serious effects on the fetus itself. Okay? The one we really worry about more than anything else, all the parasite infections, the one we worry about the most is the Plasmodium, which causes malaria. And like I said, this is a real major issue in areas that have this endemic to them. So South America, Central America, Africa, Southeast Asia, these places where you have lots of mosquitoes, lots of moisture, and it kills tens of thousands of people every year. It infects millions and millions of people every year. I think it infects something around 200 million people every year, and it kills millions of people every year. So it's the leading cause of death in a lot of the developing world because they don't know how to treat this disease very well. And again, it's a blood-borne pathogen that's passed by mosquitoes. So one of the ways that people actually protect themselves is by using mosquito nets and things like this. One way we can control the population is by controlling the vector. If we can do that. we can eliminate this disease. Okay, the last one, like I said, is good old crypto. And crypto, again, occurred in the city of Milwaukee in 1993. Some of you may have been around at that time and actually remember that and may have been infected by it. But it affected over 300,000 residents of Milwaukee that drank out of that water supply. Led to severe diarrhea, cramping, and dehydration. Most normal people, healthy people, could fight it off eventually and get better. but those that were immune compromised those that had aids or other things that were going on sometimes cancer patients other things the very young and the very old succumb to the infection because of the severe height dehydration that it caused and again it's due to these little tiny little spores that get into the water supply you drink it it mounts an infection in the intestines and can cause some severe diarrhea symptoms and so I'm not talking about one or two cases of diarrhea day but 10 to 20 times a day where basically you can't get out of bed because you're so so so debilitated by this disease okay so pretty serious and again makes Milwaukee famous for all the wrong reasons. Now the last group that we're going to look at are the ones that are fungi like and these are the slime molds and water molds and these guys kind of look like these things and you probably have seen them before and not realize you probably thought that kind of looks like something threw up there. but they're actually kinda fun guy like and what these guys do are things that committed decompose their favorite meal of choice are bacteria sometimes dead plant and animal stuff but what they do is the dead things and so you'll see these things kinda crawling along the forest floor he can he I decomposing eating things and they're not really considered fungi because they lack the typical cell wall that most fun I have and so that's why they're not put in the fungus group they originally were put there but they're now moved into the protist, the junk drawer, because they really don't fit in with the fungus group and having the typical cell walls that we see with these guys. Okay? And so these are the groups. So algae are the plant-like, and they're characterized by the color pigment. So we have the green, the red, and the brown. And so make sure you know all three of those. We have the protozoa, which are the animal-like, and they're characterized by the locomotion or spore formation. So, again, you have protozoa that move by flagella. Some that move like amoebas or the pseudopods. Some that move with cilia. And some that produce spores. And a lot of these guys are parasitic diseases. So I'm again not asking you to know specific ones. But do know that they are parasites and they can cause infection. These are a lot of the things we worry about in the world. Not so much here because we have clean water and clean food most of the time. But in a lot of the developing world, which is a majority of the world, they deal with these parasites every day. Okay. And then the last group is the slime molds, and these are the fungi-like but lack the typical fungus cell wall, so they're not concluded in the fungus. And what they do is they can decompose both bacteria, algae, protozoa, and even dead plant material. And they're really good at decomposing a lot of the dead things out there. Okay? So that was our survey through the protists, or what I like to call the junk drawer of the world. Now, don't use that on the test. I know it's kind of fun to use and talk about, but again, they kind of are their own little group of... of little organisms and again they have a lot of characteristics that would put them into other groups but again they don't have the right characteristics that make them fit into those kingdoms and so a lot of them are plant like and those are the and those are the algae a lot of them are protozoan or animal like and again they don't fit completely in because they lack some certain characteristics and again those are the protozoan And then finally we have the fungi-like, which are the molds and the slime molds and things like that. And again, they're lacking some of the characteristics that don't put them in there. And so that's what we see with all these different protists, is that they are these organisms that typically don't fit in any other category. And so if you have any questions about this, please feel free to ask me or Jill and make sure that you ask some good questions and that stuff. Take a look at everything because we have lots of live stuff this week. Make sure you look at all the live stuff. It's really cool. This is a fun week to look at the microscopes because you'll see a lot of things moving and doing those different things. So make sure you look at those things in the lab. And if you have any questions, please feel free to ask me. Okay, I'll see you next time and thanks for watching.

And so these guys kind of get put in kind of like your junk drawer at home, where you have these organisms that you really don't know what to do with, and you just stick it in the junk drawer, and hopefully it organizes itself. And that's kind of what we see here in these different groups. And so that's what we're going to be looking at in this lecture today, is actually looking at some of these different organisms that are out there that have these many qualities like these other organisms that we have.

specific kingdoms for, but they really don't fit into those kingdoms as nice and easy as we'd like them to. And so that's why we throw them in their own kingdom called the Protista. All right.

So the first thing we're going to look at is identify the members of the kingdom Protista. And like I said, it's kind of like the junk drawer of the biology world. Okay.

So all the members of the kingdom Protista consist of Eukaryotic cells. So they're all Eukaryotes. Okay.

In order to understand that, and they all have interesting qualities. So there are some that are plant-like and we call these the algae. And you're going to see some of these today, both microscopically, the Spirogyra you might see, and the other stuff you might see is some of the seaweeds that we actually have in the jars.

And so they can be either very small or actually very large. Some of the other ones are animal-like and we call these the protozoans. And the protozoans are a lot of these microscopic, they're very animal-looking, they have to eat to survive.

And a lot of them we talk about as parasites because they can be human parasites either drinking contaminated water. Sometimes they're animal born by actually getting them by infection through either bites from mosquitoes or other arachnids or other things like this. And then the other type that we can get is actually STDs and things like this.

And so we'll talk about all these wonderful things that you can possibly get from the protozoans. And then the last one are the fungi, like which are the water and slime molds. And some of you may actually have seen these if you've ever been out and just kind of walked the forest floor, maybe at your own house, and you kind of looked at this thing and you're like, whoa, what is that?

It looks like someone threw up all over. And it really isn't throw up. That actually is a slime mold or a fungal-like protist that is out there. And we'll take a look at that as well. So lots of different organisms in this.

And again, there isn't one specific type of thing that makes them. what is, why they're in the protist world. Okay.

So again, the kingdom protista vary in size from very small to very large. And so we'll see these very small ones in the lab today where you guys are going to use the microscope to look at them. And then you're going to see these ones in the jars that are actually quite large.

And if you look at the seafloor, they can be meters upon meters in size. And so they can be very large. You think they're plants, but they're actually a protist.

They acquire nutrients in many ways. So the algae are like plants and they photosynthesize. So they have pigments in them that allow them to absorb the energy from the sun. The protozoan are heterotrophic, meaning they have to eat like animals. And so we'll see what those are.

The slime molds creep along the forest floor. And again, they decompose things. They're kind of like the fungus in which they do is they kind of move along and they decompose dead plants and bacteria and other things. And then we'll also look at some of the protozoans that are actually parasites. And a lot of the protozoans that we're going to talk about today are parasites.

And we'll... will get into why they are. Now most of the protists do asexual reproduction by mitosis but there are some that undergo sexual phases where they actually make male and female gametes and then come back together.

But in most cases we're going to talk about asexual reproduction which is the budding or mitosis and then some do have separate sexes and then come together in the form of fertilization or sexual reproduction. So I'll point that out if it does come up during our video. Okay, why do we care about the protists?

Well, there's a lot of different things that can happen. Well, probably the biggest one that we all worry about is disease. And so a lot of these guys can cause disease. One of the major protozoans that are out there is the one that causes malaria, and we'll talk more about that. Some give off oxygen and function as producers, and so they're very important.

They produce more oxygen than all the green plants that we have growing on the ground. And so these guys are vital to not only the food web of the oceans, but also for the oxygen production that occurs on this planet. Okay, another thing that they do, and many of you probably don't realize this, but when you use toothpaste or ice cream, a lot of the things that are in those products are actually taken from protists. And so diatoms are found in toothpaste used as a scouring agent to brush your teeth. And then some of the LGs that we use actually we take and put into ice cream to make it the texture and stay together a lot better.

And so you'll see that as well. And then finally some of them are actually symbiotic and symbiotic relationships. And one example is a coral reef where you have many different organisms all working together as one.

And so this is really important especially for aquatic life and that where you see these protists all working together and providing a lot of the ecology and food web and cycles throughout the world. So they're very important, lots of different things that the protists do. So the first one we're going to do is look at the autotrophs. So we're going to specifically look at some of the autotrophs and kind of point out some of the ones you might actually see in the lab when you do the lab this week.

And so why are they called autotrophs? Well, that's basically saying you breathe in CO2 and then make carbon molecules or organic molecules using that CO2. And so that's why they can do that. And that's what they're called autotrophs for. Okay.

Now, algae are characterized by the type of pigment they possess, and they use that pigment to photosynthesize sunlight. So it's what color you see is what gets reflected back. So we describe the algae either as red algae, brown algae, or green algae.

And again, it's kind of like what pigment do you see reflecting back at you. If you see the green, they're the green algae. If you see a brownish color, they're the brown.

And if they're red, they're red. Pretty easy in that sense. We also have the diatoms, which are these... Creatures that basically have these hard shells on the outside and anything with diatomaceous earth is called diatoms or diatomaceous earth. And so if you see this a lot of times in products and I'll bring that up later on.

And then finally these dinoflagellates which are actually they kind of look like animal cells but they actually can photosynthesize and do some other things. And these are responsible for a lot of the algae blooms that you see on the water. These red tides which can cause very toxic conditions and kill a lot of. wildlife and fish and other things like that so we'll talk about those more as we go through but I just want to kinda give you a breakdown of where we're going with all these different things and so the first group is the green algae and they're very closely related to plants in fact a lot of people will organize these and kinda consider these the primitive plants that plants arose from these guys and formed more specific structures to deal with it so these guys all have chlorophyll They all have cellulose cell walls like plants do and a lot of them store the reserved food as starch.

The only difference is that a lot of times you see these as single cellular or sometimes you see them multicellular, but they're not as defined as a plant cell would be. But you do see nuclei, you'll see chloroplasts and other things in there. They are eukaryotic, they're just not as well defined as plants.

The ones you're going to look at in lab, so this one's a really cool one, it's called Spirogyra. And so some of you may have heard the group Spirogyra and they take it from this organism. And basically it gets its name for the spiral shape of their chloroplasts. And you'll see this in the lab and they're kind of cool looking. And a lot of times you'll see these filamentous cell walls that they have and then the chloroplasts that will go in and out of the different cells and it's actually in a spiral shape.

And we actually have live ones to look at this week, so make sure you look at those. the class. Another one is called the Yulva, which is the sea lettuce. If you like sushi, you might eat this sometimes. The sea lettuce or the California rolls a lot of times are wrapped in this.

And so green algae, they kind of look like plants and they should be plants, but they're really not because they're the protists. And again, they don't have the specific structures that plants do, and that's why they're different. Another one is the char.

And a lot of times you see this in the freshwater ponds that we have. all about throughout Wisconsin. So sometimes you'll go into these lakes and ponds and like Pewaukee Lake or maybe Little Muskego or some of these other ones and you'll see that they seem like they have all kinds of weeds. Well, they're not actually weeds. They're actually these protists that grow and look like weeds.

And so they accumulate all over and they grow very well in these ponds where you have slow moving water, warm water and allows them to flourish. Okay. The other one that you'll see in the lab this week is the volvox.

And these are kind of cool because... These are not, each one of these are actually an individual organism. And a lot of times what you'll see is these colonial cells together.

And so they look like these big, large balloons, green balloons that have these little smaller balloons on the inside. And definitely take a look. You'll see these a lot. And you'll actually see them moving around in the water.

And they're really kind of cool. So take a look at these things. And, you know, again, we're not going to ask you about specifics.

We'll never ask you what is this on the microscope. But we really want you to have an idea of the difference between a green. a red and a brown obviously you can tell by the color and that stuff so make sure you know green red and brown but don't you don't necessarily know specifics in in those senses and like what a ball box or a char and things like that are okay Now, the red algae are the ones that have red pigments.

And so these guys, again, are utilized for a lot of different things. Some of them provide agar. And that agar can be used for some of those gel caps that we take for drugs and other things. And these are found in pills.

A lot of times we use it for nutrient agar for bacterial growth. Those gels that we ran, and I showed you what they were during the molecular biology, they're made from these seaweed. And again, they can be used as an anti-drying agent as a preservative in baked.

goods and again used as a wrap in sushi. So these things can be utilized in a lot of different things. And these are the red algae because they have the red pigment. Okay, here's one typical red algae. You see this in warm seawater.

Now the third group that we look at is the brown algae. And they're brown because they kind of have this brown pigment. And these can be either small or large seaweed.

So we associate these typically with the large seaweed that you seed in the seed. And the most common type that you probably are referring to is kelp. And kelp is a delicious seaweed that a lot of people eat, again, with sushi and things like that.

And people use that as a way to get some of their nutrients and that stuff. And, again, it is an important food and important in the food web. And so it can be used both for fish and for humans to eat. And, again, another thing that's utilized, probably something you didn't realize, is the algin that's in these materials provides stability and smoothness in ice cream, sorbet, and cream cheese and other foods.

So it provides you some. texture and some quality in your ice cream that you eat every day. And so you probably didn't know it, but now you do that. Your ice cream is loaded with algae.

Okay. And here's some different strains that you're going to see. And so you'll see the fucus, you'll see the neurosisis, and then you'll see the giant kelp and the laminaria in the class itself this week. And so we have these in the jars.

They're quite large and some of them can get very, very large. And again, we have the smaller versions in the jars. So make sure you look at all the different jars.

And again, we have green algae, red algae, and brown algae. And so you're going to look at all three types in the lab this week. So make sure you look at all those things.

Now, another group are called the golden brown algae, and these are called diatoms. And diatoms are given the name because they're actually very tiny. They're microscopic, and you're going to look at these on the slide.

We have prepared slides and live stuff for you to look at. And these guys have a lot of these shells associated. They have these calcified shells that are with them.

And what they do with these shells are actually provide a really good scouring agent for things. And so we utilize these diatoms in toothpaste. So the next time you look at your toothpaste, look to see if it has diatomaceous earth in it. And if it does, what you're actually putting on your teeth are little diatoms to help scour the teeth. And we see this also in things like sandpaper, soundproofing, sometimes in filtering agents.

And they do a really good job because of the scouring abrasive. of their shells. And so that's why we use them. And again, the typical one you're going to see is the diatom. And we're going to look at these again under the microscope this week in the lab.

Now, the last group of the algae are called the dinoflagellates. And these guys are interesting because they actually have flagella. So these are kind of like plant cells that move. They have a hard shell like the diatoms do, the calcium shell, but they also have flagella and allows them to move.

They are phytoplankton, meaning that they can absorb light through or sunlight. using their pigments and again they mostly have chlorophyll but again it allows them to move and again one of the things we see associated with these things not only as symbionts with coral but they're responsible for the red tides that you hear about and sometimes you'll hear about these things where you get these algae blooms that release these red tides and so these red tides get released out and they kill a lot of fish it's not particularly wonderful I wouldn't recommend swimming in these things because you can actually get sick from the toxin that they produce as well And so that's the important thing. It produces cell toxin that can get you really sick and again kill a lot of lot of fish and things like that. And here's a picture of the red tie. I'm sure this boater is not really pleased because it probably stinks like dead fish and other things.

But this is what you would see this red balloon going on and these are due to the dinoflagellates that have really robust and a lot of times it's due to stagnant really warm water. So there's days when it's really hot and humid and again not a lot of wind. That's when you see these things bull them up because they don't have anything to push them around or move them around from.

Now the next group of protists that we're going to look at are the protozoans. And these are the animal-like ones. These all have to eat in order to survive. The protozoans are basically divided by the way that they move or the locomotion or if they form spores.

So the first groups are the ones that have flagella. The second groups are the ones that kind of crawl around and have those pseudopods, and they move like the little amoebas. So they stick out these little attachments, and they crawl themselves forward, kind of like a blob.

The third group have cilia, and these are the hair-like structures that allow these things to whip around. And then the fourth group that we'll look at are the spore formers. And these guys make spores, and then you can ingest them and actually get you sick.

And so most of the organisms I'm going to talk about here. are going to be the ones that actually cause human disease because a lot of these guys are associated with the parasites and we don't really care about so much the ones that are free living and don't bother us. The ones we worry about are the ones that cause disease.

So I'm going to bring those up today. Okay. So again, there are some that are free living in the water, but others are human pathogens or parasites that we'll look at as well.

Okay. So the first group is the zooflagellates, and again, there's a number of different types that cause disease. The first one are the trypanosomes, which are blood parasites that are passed by biting flies.

Typically, you see this in South America or in Africa, and these cause a variety of diseases like African sleeping sickness or Chagas disease, which is found in South America. And these are both blood diseases that you can get by this parasite being in your blood. Another one that's actually found in the United States is Giardia, and Giardia actually can be found in contaminated water.

So when water is unpure, a lot of times you get these parasites growing in them. You drink the water, and then you get a parasite infection. And so this is very common in the United States, and again, it's due to drinking in contaminated water.

Another guy that we worry about is Trichomonas. And Trichomonas is actually one that causes an STD and can be passed from one person to another through sexual contact. and contact and so it can cause infection that way. The last group that I'll show you pictures of are the Euclidina and they're kind of interesting because these are free living. And the reason why we look at these things is because they're loaded with chlorophyll and but they eat and they also move around by flagella.

So they're kind of a mixed master, kind of like the platypus where they have plant like structures with the chloroplasts. They eat like an animal and they move like an animal with the flagella. And so we'll look at these as well.

So the first guy. It's the trypanosomes, and again, these get transmitted by a bite from these tsetse flies, which you see in Africa, and they can cause disease. It's a blood-borne disease in which you get sick, you have this reoccurrence of fever, and then you can slip into a coma and eventually die if you don't get it treated.

And so that's one of the diseases that's caused by these. Another one is giardia, and giardia looks kind of like these little... suckers that will get in through the water they get into your intestine and cause you to have severe diarrhea so it's not a fun disease to have again you'll be sitting on the pot for a while and that stuff but eventually your body will clear it it doesn't get too invasive it doesn't get into your intestines and break through or anything like that but it can cause you some gastrointestinal distress for a couple of days and cause you some pretty bad diarrhea another guy is the aglenoids and again the aglenoid is one that has a pro or is is a produce that has both plant like in like you're gonna see these is this week in class and that they have the chloroplast but they move around with flagella and they actually will eat as well so they have chloroplasts they move around and you guys are going to see them this week and so here you can kinda see they have these chloroplasts on the inside they have the long flagellum and short flagellum and again they also can eat on the inside. So they can do a little bit of everything.

So that's kind of why they fit in the protist category really well. Where do you put them? Plants, animals?

Well, they do both. Okay. The next group is the protozoans with pseudopods. And the ones we worry about are these amoebas.

And most of them are free living, don't bother us at all. But there are some that can cause some dysentery in about 10% of the world's population. So I'm talking the world, 10% actually have these swimming around in their intestines. and they have a chronic diarrhea associated with them and so they cause amoebic dysentery and people just live with it they don't know how to treat it because they don't have the medical care and they just live with the constant bouts of diarrhea that are associated with it there are some amoebas that can actually get into your brain and that's by either drinking water or getting water in the nose and they work their way through the nose into the brain or you suffer traumatic injury like through your eye or to your nose by getting a stick dabbed in there and that will force these amoebas into your brain.

It doesn't happen very often, but it can occur. And so I just wanted to put that out, that there are some amoebas out there that actually can cause disease. But typically, most of them are associated with a type of dysentery. The third group is the protozoan, which have the cilia. And you're going to see these this weekend.

You actually have to use a frozen slide to look at these things because these guys move so fast. You're going to be like, whoa, what happened? It just flew right by. And they're really cool to look at. Sometimes they're kind of gross.

And probably some of the girls out there will be like, oh, this is gross or whatever. But they're really kind of cool organisms because they zip along in the water. And we find these in ponds and lakes all the time.

It probably will make you think about swimming in a pond and lake again, thinking about all the organisms that are actually in there. But these are really kind of cool. They move around.

You can actually see these guys moving around and floating around this week in the lab. Very cool. Definitely highly recommend seeing these things. And again, they have a lot of different parts to them. Cool thing is that they have this kind of this oral groove where they eat.

And so you can watch the cilia and you can watch these smaller guys, these smaller protists and bacteria get swallowed up by these things. And so you can watch them feed and everything else. And so they have a lot of different cool structures to them.

Most of them are single cell. And so you see them zipping around, but they're actually quite large. So again, take a look at them this week in the lab.

This is what a paramecium looks like under electron microscope. So you can see they have some vacuoles. They have that oral groove where they can feed. You can see the food vacuoles. And you can see these little hairs that surround them.

And those cilium not only help them move, but they help them feed. So they can filter feed and bring things into their oral groove as well. All right.

Here's another one that had the cilia. Another one that's actually eating another paramecium in this case. So this is kind of a cool slide. And then we've seen the Stentor, I think if you remember that video that I showed you on YouTube that has both the flagella and cilia and you're watching these things eat.

And they kind of look like little trumpets sticking out of the water. And what they do is they attach and then they filter feed off of anything that comes in. And they kind of act like a vacuum cleaner and they suck things in and bring it in and eat it and things like that.

So most of these guys don't cause disease, but they're kind of interesting to look and watch and kind of see how they work. Now, the last group that I was talking about with the protozoans are the ones that form spores. And there's a few of them that actually cause disease. And the first one is called pneumocystis carnii.

And again, they cause a type of pneumonia. So some people will get, especially if their immune system is weakened. Another one that probably pregnant women have heard of before, so if you've ever had a kid, and they've told you not to change the kitty litter, this is why, the Toxoplasma gondii.

because kitty cats have these in their intestines and these are natural reservoir of these things and if you change the kitty litter you can get these in the air and then swallow them and they end up and they don't really hurt the person that they swallow but they can travel into the fetus and actually hurt and kill the fetus another guy that we worry about is plasmodium this is the species that causes malaria and they're really four that we worry about and kill more people in the world than any other parasitic infection So kind of think of that. And then good old Cryptosporidium, which made Milwaukee famous for bad reasons. In 1993, Milwaukee had an outbreak of crypto in their water supply and it killed about 200 people.

And those were again, the very young, the very old and the immunocompromised. Most people just had to deal with severe diarrhea for about a week. They got over it and finally got better.

But again, made Milwaukee famous for not the beer and cheese, but for parasitic infection. And so again, pneumocystis carnii, it's a lung infection. You breathe this in and you breathe in the spores and it develops in the lung. Where we see this a lot of times are in immunocompromised people, especially in AIDS patients. And that is one of the leading causes is death in AIDS patients because they actually get this in their lungs and their body can't fight off the infection and then they succumb to the infection.

So that's one of these guys. Another one is the toxoplasma. And again, toxoplasma is spread through a number of different reservoirs.

Cats get it in their digestional tract, and so they can put it into the kitty litter because the cysts are shed in the feces. If a human changes that litter, they can get in contact with it and swallow it. And again, it really doesn't do too much to the human that swallows it, but where it can cause problems is that it passes to the fetus and can cause a lot of problems there, including premature abortion, can cause developmental issues, and some other problems that can occur and have some serious effects on the fetus itself.

Okay? The one we really worry about more than anything else, all the parasite infections, the one we worry about the most is the Plasmodium, which causes malaria. And like I said, this is a real major issue in areas that have this endemic to them.

So South America, Central America, Africa, Southeast Asia, these places where you have lots of mosquitoes, lots of moisture, and it kills tens of thousands of people every year. It infects millions and millions of people every year. I think it infects something around 200 million people every year, and it kills millions of people every year.

So it's the leading cause of death in a lot of the developing world because they don't know how to treat this disease very well. And again, it's a blood-borne pathogen that's passed by mosquitoes. So one of the ways that people actually protect themselves is by using mosquito nets and things like this.

One way we can control the population is by controlling the vector. If we can do that. we can eliminate this disease.

Okay, the last one, like I said, is good old crypto. And crypto, again, occurred in the city of Milwaukee in 1993. Some of you may have been around at that time and actually remember that and may have been infected by it. But it affected over 300,000 residents of Milwaukee that drank out of that water supply.

Led to severe diarrhea, cramping, and dehydration. Most normal people, healthy people, could fight it off eventually and get better. but those that were immune compromised those that had aids or other things that were going on sometimes cancer patients other things the very young and the very old succumb to the infection because of the severe height dehydration that it caused and again it's due to these little tiny little spores that get into the water supply you drink it it mounts an infection in the intestines and can cause some severe diarrhea symptoms and so I'm not talking about one or two cases of diarrhea day but 10 to 20 times a day where basically you can't get out of bed because you're so so so debilitated by this disease okay so pretty serious and again makes Milwaukee famous for all the wrong reasons. Now the last group that we're going to look at are the ones that are fungi like and these are the slime molds and water molds and these guys kind of look like these things and you probably have seen them before and not realize you probably thought that kind of looks like something threw up there.

but they're actually kinda fun guy like and what these guys do are things that committed decompose their favorite meal of choice are bacteria sometimes dead plant and animal stuff but what they do is the dead things and so you'll see these things kinda crawling along the forest floor he can he I decomposing eating things and they're not really considered fungi because they lack the typical cell wall that most fun I have and so that's why they're not put in the fungus group they originally were put there but they're now moved into the protist, the junk drawer, because they really don't fit in with the fungus group and having the typical cell walls that we see with these guys. Okay? And so these are the groups.

So algae are the plant-like, and they're characterized by the color pigment. So we have the green, the red, and the brown. And so make sure you know all three of those. We have the protozoa, which are the animal-like, and they're characterized by the locomotion or spore formation. So, again, you have protozoa that move by flagella.

Some that move like amoebas or the pseudopods. Some that move with cilia. And some that produce spores.

And a lot of these guys are parasitic diseases. So I'm again not asking you to know specific ones. But do know that they are parasites and they can cause infection. These are a lot of the things we worry about in the world. Not so much here because we have clean water and clean food most of the time.

But in a lot of the developing world, which is a majority of the world, they deal with these parasites every day. Okay. And then the last group is the slime molds, and these are the fungi-like but lack the typical fungus cell wall, so they're not concluded in the fungus. And what they do is they can decompose both bacteria, algae, protozoa, and even dead plant material.

And they're really good at decomposing a lot of the dead things out there. Okay? So that was our survey through the protists, or what I like to call the junk drawer of the world. Now, don't use that on the test. I know it's kind of fun to use and talk about, but again, they kind of are their own little group of...

of little organisms and again they have a lot of characteristics that would put them into other groups but again they don't have the right characteristics that make them fit into those kingdoms and so a lot of them are plant like and those are the and those are the algae a lot of them are protozoan or animal like and again they don't fit completely in because they lack some certain characteristics and again those are the protozoan And then finally we have the fungi-like, which are the molds and the slime molds and things like that. And again, they're lacking some of the characteristics that don't put them in there. And so that's what we see with all these different protists, is that they are these organisms that typically don't fit in any other category. And so if you have any questions about this, please feel free to ask me or Jill and make sure that you ask some good questions and that stuff.

Take a look at everything because we have lots of live stuff this week. Make sure you look at all the live stuff. It's really cool.

This is a fun week to look at the microscopes because you'll see a lot of things moving and doing those different things. So make sure you look at those things in the lab. And if you have any questions, please feel free to ask me. Okay, I'll see you next time and thanks for watching.

Transcript for:Exploring the Diversity of Protists

Transcript for:
Exploring the Diversity of Protists