Protists & Eukaryotic Diversity

1) The History of Protistology

• The advent of microscopy

• The first microbial organisms discovered

• Taxonomy, phylogeny, and systematics of protists based on morphology

 2) Why Study Protists?

• Biodiversity of eukaryotic life

• Ecological significance of protists

• Human impacts by protists

3) Principles of Molecular Phylogenetics

• Types of molecular data

• Implications of molecular data on protist phylogeny

4) The Origin of Eukaryotes

• Rooting the tree of life - molecular and morphological data

• The Neomuran hypothesis of eukaryote evolution

5) Primary Endosymbiosis and the Origin of Mitochondria

• Characteristics of mitochondria and plastids

• Molecular characterization of mitochondrial and plastid DNA

• Primary endosymbiosis and gene transfer

• When and how mitochondria originated

• When and how eukaryotes originated

6) The Supergroups of Eukaryotes, Review of Protist Diversity

• Review of the current phylogeny of eukaryotes, framed by the recognized supergroups

• Relationships between supergroups and confidence in current phylogenies

7) The Unikonta: Amoebozoans and Opisthokonts

• Classifying amoebae

• Types of pseudopodia

• The Ramicristate Amoebae (Amoebozoans): Protamoebae and Conosa (Archamoebae and Mycetozoans)

• Classifying Opisthokonts

• Flagellar and mitochondrial characteristics

• Nucleariids and Fungi

• Ichtyosporids, Choanoflagellates, multicellularity, and the origin of animals

8) Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary Endosymbiosis

• A single primary endosymbiotic event

• The formation of ‘red’ and ‘green’ primary plastids

• Secondary and tertiary endosymbiosis and the evolution of plastids

9) The Archaeplastida: Glaucophytes, Red Algae, Green Algae, and Plants

• Archaeplastida versus the Kingdom Plantae

• Glaucophyte characteristics

• Red Algal diversity: Cyanidiophytes, Rhodellophytes, Compsopogonophytes, Bangiophytes, and Florideophytes

• The paraphyletic nature of the green algae

• Green Algal diversity: Prasinophytes, Ulvophytes, Trebouxiophytes, Chlorophytes, and Charophytes

• Embryophytes: the land plants

10) The Rhizaria: Radiolarians, Foraminiferans, and Cercozoans

• Incertae sedis: the Heliozoans

• Rhizarian characteristics

• Radiolarian diversity: Acantharians, Taxopodids, and Polycystines

• Foraminiferan diversity: Monothalameans, Xenophyophores, Textulariids, Rotaliids, Miliolids, and Spirillinids

• Cercozoan diversity: Gromiids, Endomyxans, and Filosians

11) The Excavata

• The incredible diversity within the Excavates

• Excavate phylogenies

• Hydrogenosomes and mitosomes

• Jakobids

• Eopharyngians (Metamonads): Retortomonads and Diplomonads

• Parabasalians: Trichomonads and Hypermastigotes

• Oxymonads

• Heteroloboseans: Schizopyrenoids, Acrasid slime moulds, and Lyromonads

• Euglenozoans: Kinetoplastids, Diplonemids, and Euglenids

12) The Chromalveolata: Chromists and Alveolates

• The Chromalveolate controversy

• Chromists: Cryptomonads, Haptophytes, and Heterokonts (Stramenopiles)

• Heterokont diversity: Bicosoecids, Labyrinthulomycetes, Pseudofungi, Opalinids, and Ochrophytes

• Ochrophyte diversity: Eustigmatophytes, Synurophytes, Chrysophytes, Raphidophytes, Bacillariophytes, Xanthophytes, and Phaeophytes

• Alveolates: Protalveolates, Dinoflagellates, Apicomplexans, and Ciliates

Laboratory activities will emphasize microscopy techniques and exploring the biodiversity of the protist lineages covered in the course.