BIOL2610 Protists & Plants Lecture Outline PDF

BIOL2610: Protists & Plants. Lecture Outline Protists- a quick look. Some can photosynthesize (are autotrophic) and are loosely called algae (other things are also called algae), while others are heterotrophic and are informally called protozoans. Diplomonads...

BIOL2610: Protists & Plants. Lecture Outline Protists- a quick look. Some can photosynthesize (are autotrophic) and are loosely called algae (other things are also called algae), while others are heterotrophic and are informally called protozoans. Diplomonads: probably the most ancient, surviving lineage of Protists (Giardia) Two celled organisms, thus two nuclei, four flagella, mitochondria have no DNA., make you sick if you drink out of contaminated streams. Aveolates: dinoflaggelates = important in marine ecosystems, may cause red tide the plasmodium that causes Malaria is one. Water Molds: Parasitic: break down live and dead tissue: The potato disease that cause the great Irish famine in the 1800’s was caused by a water mold. Amoebozoans. Amoeba: Moves and Feeds by pseudopodia. Eats prokaryotes. Plants and Algae! Chloroplasts: Defining characteristic of the group: Most are autotrophic: take CO2 as a carbon source and sunlight as energy and make sugar (O2 and H2O as biproducts) Red Algae: Can photosynthesize, but have red pigment that covers up the green chlorophyll. Important in building the structure of coral reefs. Commercially important as a stabilizing substance in products like toothpaste, whipping cream, and ice cream. Agar on agar plates in the scientific laboratory are made with red algae. Nori (in sushi rolls) are red algae. Important for building and maintaining structure in coral reefs. Green Algae: some unicellular, some colonial, some multicellular Clamydomonas- a single celled green algae Common in freshwater streams and ponds, Has two flagella which propel them through water. Volvox- colonial green algae. May be asexual or sexual. Ulva (sea lettuce) – a multicellular green algae, complex life cycle. Has a haploid and a diploid stage which looks the same. Plants: Why Care About Plants... are very useful things... we eat them or things that eat them. we breath the byproducts of photosynthesis (O2). stabilize soil: erosion without plants fossil plants = fossil fuel: carboniferous forest (360 – 299 MYA) provide shelter and homes for animals: they are beautiful. What are the Characteristics of Plants: 1. Sessile: fixed in one spot. 2. Multi-cellular: develop from embryos. 3. Most are land dwelling. 4. Plants have cell walls. 5. Plants have chloroplasts. Photosynthesis takes place: plants make their own food = autotrophs. Type of Plants: Ancestors: green algae 1. Bryophytes: mosses - no true vascular system = transport system for water and nutrients. -absorb water through the upper structures. -spread horizontally to maximize exposure to the sun. 2. Seedless vascular plants: ferns and their allies. - have vascular system: transport of nutrients and water. - produce spores rather than seeds. 3. The first seeded plants: gymnosperms or evergreen trees - produce sperm in pollen rather than spores. -do not need aquatic environment for reproduction. - produce seeds. 4. Angiosperms: flowering plants. - diverse: 260,000 known species - actively pollinated by animals attracted to the flowers (mostly). Examples of Complex relationships between angiosperms and animals. 1. Magnolia: a primitive angiosperm- fleshy flower that smells very sweet = attracts beetles who eat the flower and get pollen on them which can then be transferred to another flower. 2. Bee, bird, mammal assisted pollination: 3. Animals as seed dispersers.