Laboratory Exercise 4: Eukaryote Diversity –
The Protists (Eukaryotes excluding Land Plants, Fungi, and Animals)
Biology II Laboratory BSC1011L Authors: BJ AG NB DB AN SF BE Date:27Jan24
Material is also covered in Chapters 28 of Campbell Biology, 12th Ed., Urry, Cain, Wasserman, Minorsky and Orr. Page
numbers refer to Chapter 4 of A Photographic Atlas for the Biology Laboratory, 8th edition.
Group Members: _______________________________________, ________________________________________
___________________________________________________, ___________________________________________
This is the first lab in which you will use the microscopes, live material, and photographs
and text within the Photographic Atlas. When you see the following symbols:
Examine the Photographic Atlas for the Biology Laboratory. Chapter 4 or Power Points
Examine lab material using the microscope.
Examine live or preserved material (without the microscope).
Figure 1. A single spirogyra cell,
a filamentous green alga.
KEY CONCEPTS: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spirogyra
1. The compound binocular microscope will allow you to see structures 40-1000X larger than with the naked eye.
2. The protists are not a clade, but an informal group of very small eukaryotes. Evolutionary relationships are
difficult to determine among the protists due to their great diversity and a limited number of diagnostic
characters. The taxonomy is in flux due to the continued discovery of new phylogenetic relationships.
3. Several key characteristics that are used for identification and classification include:
• The different forms of sexual and asexual life cycles
• Unicellular forms and different multicellular forms (colonial, filamentous).
• The various ways of obtaining food (heterotrophic, autotrophic, and mixotrophic) and different forms of
heterotrophy (parasitic, saprophytic)
• The various ways of locomotion (non-motile, or use of cilia, flagella and amoeboid movement)
4. Protists have both sexual and asexual life cycles. The sexual life cycle involves meiosis (producing gametes that
are 1n) and fertilization (producing a zygote that is 2n). In Chlamydomonas (Figure 4 of this handout) the 1n stage
can reproduce asexually.
5. Protists are important even though they are very small because:
• Protists were the first eukaryotes and make up much of the diversity of the Domain Eukarya.
Lab 4: Eukaryote Diversity: The Protists
• Some are beneficial and critical to life on earth because they are at the bottom of the food chain and many
multicellular organisms depend on them in the great web of life. Without them, life as we know it could not
exist.
• Some are detrimental and cause horrendous diseases in humans (Malaria, African sleeping sickness).
SKILLS YOU SHOULD MASTER BY THE END OF THE LAB:
1. Be able to use a microscope correctly, and
a. Be able to name the parts of the microscope.
b. Be able to prepare a wet mount.
c. Be able to calculate the total magnification from the ocular and objective lenses.
1
, 2. Recognize the key characteristics that are used in identifying protists.
a. Life cycles:
• Be able to draw a simple life cycle that includes a sexual cycle and an asexual cycle.
• Understand the roles mitosis and meiosis play, and when they occur in life cycles.
• Understand the difference between haploid and diploid cells and their place in life cycles.
b. Unicellular forms and different multicellular forms (colonial, filamentous).
c. The various ways of obtaining food (heterotrophic, autotrophic, and mixotrophic)
d. The various ways of locomotion (non-motile, or use of cilia, flagella and amoeboid movement)
3. Be able to recognize the protist specimens and their key characteristics. Be sure to study:
• Tables 4.1, page 35 of the lab manual, and Table 4.2, page 44 will help you organize the groups.
• Study Guides 1, 2 and 3.
• Materials table below.
VOCABULARY:
Autotrophic Phagocytosis Meiosis
Chloroplasts Pseudopodia Conjugation
Photosynthesis Flagella Conjugation tubes
Heterotrophic Cilia Reproduction by fission
Saprophyte Non-motile Silicon dioxide/silica
Parasite Asexual reproduction Eye spot
Mixotrophic Sexual reproduction Daughter colony
Unicellular Isogamous gametes Saprophyte
Multicellular Zygospore Parasite
Colonial Zoospore Amoebic dysentery
Filamentous Haploid Malaria
Amoeboid movement Diploid African Sleeping sickness
Cytoplasmic streaming Mitosis Parts of microscope page 3
MATERIALS: Lab safety and use of live material.
• Handle live material gently.
• Dispose of all glass slides, cover slips, and broken glass in special waste containers for glass.
The material that is available to you:
Specimen (by group)
Excavata
Trypanosoma Demonstration Scope Only
Euglena Prepared Slide, Fresh material for wet mount
SAR
Lab 4: Eukaryote Diversity: The Protists
Plasmodium Demonstration Scope Only
Paramecium Prepared Slide
Diatoms Prepared Slide
Brown algae and kelp Live material
Archaeplastida (Plant-like Green and Red Algae, and Land Plants)
Spirogyra (green algae) Prepared Slide, Fresh material for wet mount
Volvox (green algae) Prepared Slide
Chlamydomonas (green algae) Prepared Slide
Red algae Live material
Unikonta (Amoebas, other protists, and a group that includes both Fungi and Animals)
Amoeba Prepared Slide, Fresh material for wet mount
Slime mold Live material on demonstration scope
Many species
Pond Water- various species Fresh material for wet mount
including small animals
2
The Protists (Eukaryotes excluding Land Plants, Fungi, and Animals)
Biology II Laboratory BSC1011L Authors: BJ AG NB DB AN SF BE Date:27Jan24
Material is also covered in Chapters 28 of Campbell Biology, 12th Ed., Urry, Cain, Wasserman, Minorsky and Orr. Page
numbers refer to Chapter 4 of A Photographic Atlas for the Biology Laboratory, 8th edition.
Group Members: _______________________________________, ________________________________________
___________________________________________________, ___________________________________________
This is the first lab in which you will use the microscopes, live material, and photographs
and text within the Photographic Atlas. When you see the following symbols:
Examine the Photographic Atlas for the Biology Laboratory. Chapter 4 or Power Points
Examine lab material using the microscope.
Examine live or preserved material (without the microscope).
Figure 1. A single spirogyra cell,
a filamentous green alga.
KEY CONCEPTS: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spirogyra
1. The compound binocular microscope will allow you to see structures 40-1000X larger than with the naked eye.
2. The protists are not a clade, but an informal group of very small eukaryotes. Evolutionary relationships are
difficult to determine among the protists due to their great diversity and a limited number of diagnostic
characters. The taxonomy is in flux due to the continued discovery of new phylogenetic relationships.
3. Several key characteristics that are used for identification and classification include:
• The different forms of sexual and asexual life cycles
• Unicellular forms and different multicellular forms (colonial, filamentous).
• The various ways of obtaining food (heterotrophic, autotrophic, and mixotrophic) and different forms of
heterotrophy (parasitic, saprophytic)
• The various ways of locomotion (non-motile, or use of cilia, flagella and amoeboid movement)
4. Protists have both sexual and asexual life cycles. The sexual life cycle involves meiosis (producing gametes that
are 1n) and fertilization (producing a zygote that is 2n). In Chlamydomonas (Figure 4 of this handout) the 1n stage
can reproduce asexually.
5. Protists are important even though they are very small because:
• Protists were the first eukaryotes and make up much of the diversity of the Domain Eukarya.
Lab 4: Eukaryote Diversity: The Protists
• Some are beneficial and critical to life on earth because they are at the bottom of the food chain and many
multicellular organisms depend on them in the great web of life. Without them, life as we know it could not
exist.
• Some are detrimental and cause horrendous diseases in humans (Malaria, African sleeping sickness).
SKILLS YOU SHOULD MASTER BY THE END OF THE LAB:
1. Be able to use a microscope correctly, and
a. Be able to name the parts of the microscope.
b. Be able to prepare a wet mount.
c. Be able to calculate the total magnification from the ocular and objective lenses.
1
, 2. Recognize the key characteristics that are used in identifying protists.
a. Life cycles:
• Be able to draw a simple life cycle that includes a sexual cycle and an asexual cycle.
• Understand the roles mitosis and meiosis play, and when they occur in life cycles.
• Understand the difference between haploid and diploid cells and their place in life cycles.
b. Unicellular forms and different multicellular forms (colonial, filamentous).
c. The various ways of obtaining food (heterotrophic, autotrophic, and mixotrophic)
d. The various ways of locomotion (non-motile, or use of cilia, flagella and amoeboid movement)
3. Be able to recognize the protist specimens and their key characteristics. Be sure to study:
• Tables 4.1, page 35 of the lab manual, and Table 4.2, page 44 will help you organize the groups.
• Study Guides 1, 2 and 3.
• Materials table below.
VOCABULARY:
Autotrophic Phagocytosis Meiosis
Chloroplasts Pseudopodia Conjugation
Photosynthesis Flagella Conjugation tubes
Heterotrophic Cilia Reproduction by fission
Saprophyte Non-motile Silicon dioxide/silica
Parasite Asexual reproduction Eye spot
Mixotrophic Sexual reproduction Daughter colony
Unicellular Isogamous gametes Saprophyte
Multicellular Zygospore Parasite
Colonial Zoospore Amoebic dysentery
Filamentous Haploid Malaria
Amoeboid movement Diploid African Sleeping sickness
Cytoplasmic streaming Mitosis Parts of microscope page 3
MATERIALS: Lab safety and use of live material.
• Handle live material gently.
• Dispose of all glass slides, cover slips, and broken glass in special waste containers for glass.
The material that is available to you:
Specimen (by group)
Excavata
Trypanosoma Demonstration Scope Only
Euglena Prepared Slide, Fresh material for wet mount
SAR
Lab 4: Eukaryote Diversity: The Protists
Plasmodium Demonstration Scope Only
Paramecium Prepared Slide
Diatoms Prepared Slide
Brown algae and kelp Live material
Archaeplastida (Plant-like Green and Red Algae, and Land Plants)
Spirogyra (green algae) Prepared Slide, Fresh material for wet mount
Volvox (green algae) Prepared Slide
Chlamydomonas (green algae) Prepared Slide
Red algae Live material
Unikonta (Amoebas, other protists, and a group that includes both Fungi and Animals)
Amoeba Prepared Slide, Fresh material for wet mount
Slime mold Live material on demonstration scope
Many species
Pond Water- various species Fresh material for wet mount
including small animals
2
