BIO SCI 94 Lecture 12: Protists Part 1

• School: UC-Irvine
• Department: Biological Sciences
• Course: BIO SCI 94
• Professor: Brad Hughes

Document Summary

Eukaryotes- size of single celled organism to sequoia trees and blue whales. Protists- organisms include eukaryotes except land plants, fungi, animals. Only represent some of the descendants of single common ancestor. Types of protists cause disease in human or crops. Worst crop failure-irish potato famine of 1845 caused by phytophthora. Malaria-one of worst chronic public health problems. Caused by five species of parasitic protist plasmodium. Cell types of plasmodium"s life cycle specialized for infecting specific host cell. Plasmodium lives in mosquitoes and humans causes malaria. Unicellular species" population grows quickly + high density in aquatic environment bloom occurs. Cause of bloom- dinoflagellates, photosynthetic, toxic producing protist. Blooms harmful to humans because toxins builds up in clams and shellfish. People eat shellfish several types of poisoning. Protists abundant, represent 10% of named eukaryotic species. Protists play a key role in aquatic food chains. Primary producers- uses photosynthesis to produce chemical energy.