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Protozoa General Characteristics

Protozoa are microscopic, single-celled eukaryotic organisms that exist as either solitary or colonial entities. They display a diverse array of shapes and methods of locomotion and nutrition. Protozoa are characterized by undertaking all life functions within a single cell, and reproducing through asexual and sexual means such as binary fission, budding, conjugation, and sporulation. There are approximately 50,000 known protozoan species that occupy a wide range of habitats including free-living aquatic and parasitic niches.

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82 views12 pages

Protozoa General Characteristics

Protozoa are microscopic, single-celled eukaryotic organisms that exist as either solitary or colonial entities. They display a diverse array of shapes and methods of locomotion and nutrition. Protozoa are characterized by undertaking all life functions within a single cell, and reproducing through asexual and sexual means such as binary fission, budding, conjugation, and sporulation. There are approximately 50,000 known protozoan species that occupy a wide range of habitats including free-living aquatic and parasitic niches.

Uploaded by

vasundhara ayyagari
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Protozoa- General Characteristics

 Protozoa may be defined as  “microscopic


acellular animalcules existing singly or in colonies,
without tissue and organs, having one or more
nuclei”.
Some of the characteristics are:

 There are about 50,000 known species of


Phylum Protozoa.
 Protozoans exhibit mainly two forms of
life; free-living (aquatic, freshwater, seawater)
and parasitic (ectoparasites or endoparasites).
They are also commensal in habitat.
 They are small, usually microscopic, not
visualize without a microscope.
 They are the simplest and primitive of all
animals.
 They have a simple body organization. i.e.
with a protoplasmic grade of organization.
 The body is unicellular (without tissue and
organs).
 They have one or more nuclei which are
monomorphic or dimorphic.
 Body naked or bounded by a pellicle, but in some
forms may be covered with shells and often
provided with an internal skeleton.
 They are solitary (existing alone/single)
or colonial (individuals are alike and independent).
 Body protoplasm is differentiated into an
outer ectoplasm and inner endoplasm.
 The single-cell body performs all the essential and
vital activities, which characterize the animal
body; hence only subcellular physiological
division of labor.
 Locomotory organs are fingers
like pseudopodia, whip-like flagella, hair-
like cilia or none.
 Nutrition may be holozoic (animal-
like), holophytic (plant-
like), saprozoic or parasitic.
 Body shape variables may be spherical, oval,
elongated or flattened.
 Body symmetry either none or bilateral or
radial or spherical.
 Body form usually constant, varied in some,
while changing with environment or age in
many.
 Digestion occurs intracellularly which takes place
inside the food vacuoles.
 Respiration occurs by diffusion through the general
body surface.
 Excretion occurs through the general body surface,
but in some forms through a temporary opening in the
ectoplasm or through a permanent pore
called cytopyge.
 Examples: Euglena, Amoeba, Plasmodium,
Paramecium, Podophyra, etc.
 Contractile vacuoles perform osmoregulation in
freshwater forms and also help in removing excretory
products.
 Reproduction asexual (binary or multiple fission,
budding, sporulation) or sexual (conjugation
(hologamy), game formation (syngamy).
 The life cycle often complicated with alternation of
asexual and sexual phases (alternation of
generation).
 Encystment commonly occurs to resist unfavorable
conditions of food, temperature, and moisture, and
also helps in dispersal.
 The single-celled individual not differentiated into
somatoplasm and germplasm; therefore, exempt
from natural death which is the price paid for the
body.
 Protozoans exhibit mainly two forms of life; free-
living (aquatic, freshwater, seawater)
and parasitic (ectoparasites or endoparasites). They
are also commensal in habitat

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