← Back to catalogue
Research draft

protist

vr.tr.protist · PHY.LIV

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.

Thing Registry Physical world and living systems

Research draft, second pass

A second pass drafted this model: the structure a model of this thing needs, and what is known about it in the world. The line under this one says how the second half was obtained - researched against sources, or recalled without web access, in which case nothing here was read anywhere and every claim is a lead to verify. Unreviewed either way.

written by Claude from model knowledge without web access - no source was read, every claim is a lead to verify

Researched by: Claude

Purpose and description

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.

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.

What it is for: Not applicable; a grouping of organisms.

It can be explain the grouping and classification; describe major lineages; relay ecological and medical significance; distinguish from other groups.

Distinguishing features

Paraphyletic grouping

Mostly unicellular

Great diversity

Supergroup classification

What it looks like

Mostly microscopic single cells; some visible as algae, slime moulds or kelp.

Physical character

described species: over 100000 count - estimates

share of ocean primary production: about half fraction - by marine protists and cyanobacteria

How it is recognised

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

Related models

is a kind of - in registry terms

organism

is a - outside the three multicellular kingdoms

eukaryote

is classified into - such as SAR

eukaryotic supergroup

is contrasted with - a separate kingdom

fungus

In practice

Families and kinds

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

Identifiers

NCBI Taxonomy various supergroups no single taxon

Standards and regulation

International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi and plants

International Code of Zoological Nomenclature for protozoa

Public health rules for protist pathogens

Failure modes and hazards

Treating protists as a natural kingdom

Confusing protists with bacteria or fungi

Harmful algal blooms and parasitic diseases

Also called

Carnivorous protistslime moldsfungus-like protistMarine protists

Where this came from

wikidata · CC0 1.0

Also registered as vr.tr.protist

Drafted structure

Bundle to layer to finding to question, as the second pass will find it: 4 bundles · 8 layers · 8 findings · 16 questions.

Understand What protists are.

Science.

Definition

Definition and classification.

Definition

Definition.

  1. What are protists, and why is the group no longer a formal kingdom? definition
  2. Is the organism a protist, a bacterium, a fungus, a plant or an animal? boundary

Lineages

Major lineages.

Lineages

Lineages.

  1. What are the major protist lineages and supergroups? definition
  2. Which entry fits the specific group? action
Ecology Ecology.

Science.

Marine

Marine and freshwater protists.

Marine

Marine.

  1. What roles do protists play in ocean food webs and carbon cycling, as research shows? provenance
  2. Which entry fits phytoplankton? action

Feeding

Feeding modes.

Feeding

Feeding.

  1. How do photosynthetic, carnivorous and mixotrophic protists feed? provenance
  2. Which references are standard? provenance
Impact Health and economy.

Clinical.

Disease

Parasitic protists.

Disease

Disease.

  1. Which protists cause diseases such as malaria and sleeping sickness, in general terms? provenance
  2. Is the user asking about a personal infection, which needs a clinician? boundary

Economy

Economic roles.

Economy

Economy.

  1. How do protists matter in aquaculture, crop disease such as potato blight and biotechnology? provenance
  2. Which sources are cited? provenance
Context History and methods.

Context.

History

History.

History

History.

  1. How did the concept of protists develop from Haeckel to modern phylogenomics? provenance
  2. Which entry fits the history of taxonomy? action

Methods

Methods.

Methods

Methods.

  1. How are protists studied with microscopy, culturing and environmental sequencing? provenance
  2. Which entry fits protistology? action

What the second pass must settle

  • 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?