protist
Let an agent explain protists as an informal grouping, describe major lineages and current classification, relay their ecological, medical and economic significance, and distinguish protists from bacteria, fungi and true plants and animals.
Bundle → Layer → Finding → Questions Filled
4 bundles · 8 layers · 8 findings · 16 questions
Understand What protists are.
Definition
Definition and classification.
Definition
Definition.
- What are protists, and why is the group no longer a formal kingdom? definition
- Is the organism a protist, a bacterium, a fungus, a plant or an animal? boundary
Lineages
Major lineages.
Lineages
Lineages.
- What are the major protist lineages and supergroups? definition
- Which entry fits the specific group? action
Ecology Ecology.
Marine
Marine and freshwater protists.
Marine
Marine.
- What roles do protists play in ocean food webs and carbon cycling, as research shows? provenance
- Which entry fits phytoplankton? action
Feeding
Feeding modes.
Feeding
Feeding.
- How do photosynthetic, carnivorous and mixotrophic protists feed? provenance
- Which references are standard? provenance
Impact Health and economy.
Disease
Parasitic protists.
Disease
Disease.
- Which protists cause diseases such as malaria and sleeping sickness, in general terms? provenance
- Is the user asking about a personal infection, which needs a clinician? boundary
Economy
Economic roles.
Economy
Economy.
- How do protists matter in aquaculture, crop disease such as potato blight and biotechnology? provenance
- Which sources are cited? provenance
Context History and methods.
History
History.
History
History.
- How did the concept of protists develop from Haeckel to modern phylogenomics? provenance
- Which entry fits the history of taxonomy? action
Methods
Methods.
Methods
Methods.
- How are protists studied with microscopy, culturing and environmental sequencing? provenance
- Which entry fits protistology? action
Classifiers Filled
- Family
- Thing Registry
- Category
- Physical world and living systems
- Entry kind
- thing
- Plane
- PHY
- Domain
- PHY.LIV
- Other names and narrower kinds
- Carnivorous protist, slime molds, fungus-like protist, Marine protists
What it is Filled
Any eukaryotic organism that is not an animal, plant or fungus, an informal grouping of mostly unicellular organisms spanning many lineages including algae, protozoa, slime moulds, water moulds and other fungus-like protists, carnivorous protists that feed on other cells, and marine protists that drive ocean food webs; the kingdom Protista is no longer accepted as a natural group, and protists are now classified into supergroups such as SAR, Archaeplastida, Amoebozoa and Excavata.
Why it exists Filled
Let an agent explain protists as an informal grouping, describe major lineages and current classification, relay their ecological, medical and economic significance, and distinguish protists from bacteria, fungi and true plants and animals.
Distinguishing features Filled
- Paraphyletic grouping
- Mostly unicellular
- Great diversity
- Supergroup classification
What robots and AI may and may not do Filled
Must not
- Release cultured protists into water or soil outside approved settings.
- Assist in using pathogenic protists to harm people, animals or crops.
- Present the informal grouping as a single natural lineage without noting it.
- Dismiss a positive test for a pathogenic protist in drinking water.
Only with a human decision
- Issuing public warnings about harmful algal blooms or waterborne parasites.
- Shipping live cultures of pathogenic species.
May
- Classify and describe protists from microscopy, sequencing and literature.
- Monitor water for protists such as harmful algae or parasites on an operator's behalf.
Moral aspects Filled
- Protists include parasites behind malaria and other diseases that weigh most on poorer regions.
- Algal protists produce much of the world's oxygen and underpin aquatic food webs.
Who is affected
- People exposed to protist diseases
- Aquatic ecosystems
- Fisheries
Owners Filled
Steward
Nobody owns them; culture collections and laboratories answer for strains they keep.
Master systems
- Culture collection catalogues
- Taxonomic databases
Links to other meta-models Filled
parent
- Q7239 - registry parent class
- eukaryote - outside the three multicellular kingdoms
related
- organism - in registry terms
- eukaryotic supergroup - such as SAR
- fungus - a separate kingdom
What else AI and robots need to interact with it Filled
Identity and identifiers required Filled
- Vercy registry: vr.tr.protist
- Wikidata: Q10892 (https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q10892)
- NCBI Taxonomy: various supergroups no single taxon
Direct properties required Filled
- described species: over 100000 count - estimates
- share of ocean primary production: about half fraction - by marine protists and cyanobacteria
Recognition required Filled
- Eukaryotes outside animals, plants and fungi
- Algae, protozoa, slime moulds, water moulds, marine protists
- Bacteria and archaea are prokaryotes; fungi and plants are separate kingdoms
- Mostly microscopic single cells; some visible as algae, slime moulds or kelp.
Capabilities and actions required Filled
- explain the grouping and classification
- describe major lineages
- relay ecological and medical significance
- distinguish from other groups
Hazards and failure modes required Filled
- Treating protists as a natural kingdom
- Confusing protists with bacteria or fungi
- Harmful algal blooms and parasitic diseases
Standards and interfaces required Filled
- International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi and plants
- International Code of Zoological Nomenclature for protozoa
- Public health rules for protist pathogens
Context of use required Filled
- Not applicable; a grouping of organisms.
- photosynthetic protists or algae, including diatoms and dinoflagellates
- protozoa such as ciliates, amoebae and flagellates
- slime moulds
- fungus-like protists such as oomycetes or water moulds
- parasitic protists such as Plasmodium and Trypanosoma
- carnivorous and predatory protists
- marine protists
Sources Filled
- Wikidata item Q10892: protist - identity and sense of the item
- Wikipedia: Protist - general description of the item
Open questions
- Should algae and protozoa be separate primary entries?
- How should classification databases be linked?
- The registry entry has merged aliases naming subgroups and ecological categories; should they be split off?
Machine files
Provenance
thing registry research (pass 2) · unreviewed
Built from: models/things/publications/thing-q10892/spec.json