Lecture 5- Microbial eukaryotes-protists

Question 1

What are protists?

Answer 1

A paraphyletic group of eukaryotes that do not belong to plants, animals, or fungi. They are also called microbial eukaryotes, though not all are microbial.

Question 2

Define plankton.

Answer 2

Free floating, microscopic, aquatic organisms. Plankton that are photosynthetic are called phytoplankton- these are primary producers

Question 3

What are diatoms?

Answer 3

A clade of phytoplankton that fix 1/5th of carbon on Earth.

Question 4

Endosymbiosis is common in microbial eukaryotes. Define endosymbiosis and give an example.

Answer 4

Two species living together, with one living inside the body or cells of the other. Dinoflagellates are common in animals, some live in corals. Many radiolarians have photosynthetic endosymbionts.

Question 5

Some microbial eukaryotes are pathogens, such as Plasmodium. What is plasmodium?

Answer 5

A group of Apicomplexans that is an extracellular parasite in the female Anopheles vector and an intracellular parasite of red blood cells in the human host which causes malaria.

Question 6

Trypanosomes (Kinetoplastids) are deadly organisms. What are some of the diseases they cause?

Answer 6

Sleeping sickness, Chagas disease, leishmaniasis