Visit our new beta site!
Home  >  Categories  >  Plants and Animals  >  Microbes, Algae, and Fungi  >  Moneran and Protistan
Categories:
  • Earth and the Environment
    • Atmosphere and Weather
    • Biographies
    • Ecology and Environmentalism
    • Geography
    • Geology and Oceanography
    • Minerals, Mining, and Metallurgy
  • History
    • Ancient Greece and Rome
    • Asia and Africa
    • Australia, New Zealand, and the Pacific
    • Biographies
    • Historians and Chronicles
    • Latin America and the Caribbean
    • Modern Europe
    • United States and Canada
  • Literature and the Arts
    • Art and Architecture
    • Biographies
    • Classical Literature, Mythology, and Folklore
    • Fashion, Design, and Crafts
    • Journalism and Publishing
    • Language, Linguistics, and Literary Terms
    • Literature in English
    • Literature in Other Modern Languages
    • Performing Arts
    • Scholars and Historians
  • Medicine
    • Anatomy and Physiology
    • Biographies
    • Diseases and Conditions
    • Divisions, Diagnostics, and Procedures
    • Drugs
    • Psychology
  • People
    • History
    • Literature and the Arts
    • Medicine
    • Philosophy and Religion
    • Science and Technology
    • Social Sciences and the Law
    • Sports and Games
  • Philosophy and Religion
    • Ancient Religions
    • Biographies
    • Christianity
    • Eastern Religions
    • Islam
    • Judaism
    • Other Religious Beliefs and General Terms
    • Philosophy
    • The Bible
  • Places
    • Africa
    • Asia
    • Australia and Oceania
    • Britain, Ireland, France, and the Low Countries
    • Commonwealth of Independent States and the Baltic Nations
    • Germany, Scandinavia, and Central Europe
    • Latin America and the Caribbean
    • Oceans, Continents, and Polar Regions
    • Spain, Portugal, Italy, Greece, and the Balkans
    • United States and Canada
  • Plants and Animals
    • Agriculture and Horticulture
    • Animals
    • Biographies
    • Botany
    • Microbes, Algae, and Fungi
    • Plants
    • Zoology and Veterinary Medicine
  • Science and Technology
    • Astronomy and Space Exploration
    • Biochemistry
    • Biographies
    • Biology and Genetics
    • Chemistry
    • Computers and Electrical Engineering
    • Mathematics
    • Physics
    • Technology
  • Social Sciences and the Law
    • Anthropology and Archaeology
    • Biographies
    • Economics, Business, and Labor
    • Education
    • Law
    • Political Science and Government
    • Sociology and Social Reform
  • Sports and Everyday Life
    • Biographies
    • Crafts and Household Items
    • Days and Holidays
    • Fashion and Clothing
    • Food and Drink
    • Games
    • Manners and Customs
    • Social Organizations
    • Sports
Documents for "Moneran and Protistan":
  • agar product obtained from several species of red algae, or seaweed , chiefly from the Ceylon, or Jaffna, moss ( Gracilaria lichenoides ) and species of Gelidium, harvested in eastern Asia and California. Chemically, agar is a polymer made up of subunits of the sugar galactose; it is a component of the algae's cell walls. Dissolved in boiling water and...
  • algae [plural of Lat. alga =seaweed], a large and diverse group of primarily aquatic plantlike organisms. These organisms were previously classified as a primitive subkingdom of the plant kingdom, the thallophytes...
  • ameba or amoeba , common name for certain one-celled organisms belonging to the phylum Sarcodina of the kingdom Protista. Amebas were previously classified as members of the animal kingdom. Most amebas...
  • Archaebacteria diverse group of bacteria (prokaryotes), sometimes called the archaea and considered a major group unto themselves. Archaebacteria are contrasted with the Eubacteria, from which they differ biochemically in the arrangement...
  • bacillus any rod-shaped bacterium or, more particularly, a rod-shaped bacterium of the genus Bacillus. Some bacterium in the genus cause disease, for example B. anthracis is the cause of anthrax ; others...
  • bacteria [pl. of bacterium], microscopic unicellular prokaryotic organisms characterized by the lack of a membrane-bound nucleus and membrane-bound organelles. Once considered a part of the plant kingdom,...
  • bacteriophage virus that infects bacteria and sometimes destroys them by lysis, or dissolution of the cell. Bacteriophages, or phages, have a head composed of protein, an inner core of nucleic acid —either deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) or ribonucleic acid (RNA)—and a hollow protein tail. A particular phage can usually infect only one or a few related species of bacteria; for example, coliphages...
  • blue-green algae popular name for those microorganisms that are now more properly called cyanobacteria.
  • Chlorophyta phylum (division) of the kingdom Protista consisting of the photosynthetic organisms commonly known as green algae. The organisms are largely aquatic or marine. The various species can be unicellular, multicellular, coenocytic (having more than one nucleus in a cell), or colonial. Those that are motile have two...
  • Chrysophyta phylum (division) of unicellular marine or freshwater organisms of the kingdom Protista consisting of the diatoms (class Bacillariophyceae), the golden, or golden-brown, algae (class Chrysophyceae), and the yellow-green algae (class Xanthophyceae). In many chrysophytes the cell walls are composed of cellulose...
  • Ciliophora phylum in the kingdom Protista consisting of the ciliates, or ciliophores, complex freshwater or saltwater protozoans that swim by the coordinated beating of their cilia—short, hairlike structures that cover the cell surface. Like other protozoans, ciliates are unicellular heterotrophs. Some feed on bacteria and...
  • cyanobacteria or blue-green algae, photosynthetic bacteria that contain chlorophyll. For many years they were classified in the plant kingdom along with algae , but discoveries made possible by the electron microscope and new biochemical techniques have shown them to be prokaryotes more similar to bacteria than to plants, and they are now placed in the...
  • cytomegalovirus member of the herpesvirus family that can cause serious complications in persons with weakened immune systems. A common virus, it is estimated that up to 80% of Americans carry cytomegalovirus by...
  • desmid a protist of the class Charophyceae (see Chlorophyta ).
  • diatom unicellular organism of the kingdom Protista , characterized by a silica shell of often intricate and beautiful sculpturing. Most diatoms exist singly, although some join to form colonies. They are usually yellowish or brownish, and are found...
  • Dinoflagellata phylum (division) of unicellular, mostly marine algae , called dinoflagellates. In some classification systems this division is called Pyrrhophyta. There are approximately 2,000 species of dinoflagellates. Most have two flagella that lie perpendicular...
  • Escherichia coli common bacterium that normally inhabits the intestinal tracts of humans and animals, but can cause infection in other parts of the body, especially the urinary tract. It is the most common member...
  • Euglenophyta small phylum (division) of the kingdom Protista , consisting of mostly unicellular aquatic algae. Most live in freshwater; many have flagella and are motile. The outer part of the cell consists of a firm but flexible layer called a pellicle, or periplast, which cannot properly be considered a...
  • foraminiferan common name for members of the class Foraminifera, large, shelled ameboid protozoans belonging to the phylum Sarcodina. Most foraminiferan shells are calcareous, but some are siliceous, and others are built of sand grains. Initially, the shell contains a single chamber, and new...
  • Fungi kingdom of heterotrophic single-celled, multinucleated, or multicellular organisms, including yeasts, molds, and mushrooms. The organisms live as parasites , symbionts, or saprobes (see saprophyte ). Previously classified in the plant kingdom, fungi are nonmotile, like plants, but lack the vascular tissues (phloem and xylem) that form the true roots, stems, and leaves of plants. Most...
  • kelp see seaweed ; Phaeophyta.
  • lichen usually slow-growing organism of simple structure, composed of fungi (see Fungi ) and photosynthetic green algae or cyanobacteria living together in a symbiotic relationship and resulting in a structure that resembles neither constituent. There are about 25,000 species, most comprised of a sac fungus (Ascomycete) and a green...
  • Mastigophora phylum of unicellular heterotrophic protozoans of the kingdom Protista. Most of the approximately 1,500 species of Mastigophora are propelled by one or more flagella, and members of the group are sometimes referred to as flagellates. Some have pseudopodia, temporary...
  • Metazoa subkingdom of the animal kingdom comprising the multicellular animals in the traditional two-kingdom system of taxonomic classification, in which living organisms were considered to be either...
  • mildew name for certain fungi and protists, for the diseases they cause in various crops, and for the discoloration (and sometimes the weakening and disintegration) they cause in such materials as...
  • mold name for certain multicellular organisms of the various classes of the kingdom Fungi , characteristically having bodies composed of a cottony mycelium. The colors of molds are caused by the spores, which are borne on the mycelium. Most molds are saprobes and can obtain moisture and...
  • Monera taxonomic kingdom that comprises the prokaryotes ( bacteria and cyanobacteria ). Prokaryotes are single-celled organisms that lack a membrane-bound nucleus and usually lack membrane-bound organelles...
  • mushroom type of basidium fungus characterized by spore-bearing gills on the underside of the umbrella- or cone-shaped cap. The name toadstool is popularly reserved for inedible or poisonous mushrooms, but this classification has no scientific basis. The only safe way of distinguishing between the edible and the poisonous species is to...
  • Opalinida phylum of unicellular heterotrophic organisms of the kingdom Protista. The opalinids are all intestinal parasites of small vertebrates, such as frogs, toads, and fish. Opalinid cells are covered with either short, hairlike structures called cilia or with longer...
  • paramecium unicellular organism of the genus Paramecium, of the ciliate phylum Ciliophora found in freshwater throughout the world. Like other protozoans , paramecia, previously considered one-celled animals, are now customarily placed in kingdom Protista. The paramecium has a stiff outer covering that gives it a permanent slipper shape. It swims rapidly by coordinated wavelike beats of its many cilia—short, hairlike projections of the cell. A...
  • Phaeophyta phylum (division) of the kingdom Protista consisting of those organisms commonly called brown algae. Many of the world's familiar seaweeds are members of Phaeophyta. There are approximately 1,500 species. Like the chrysophytes (see Chrysophyta ), brown algae derive their color from the presence, in the cell chloroplasts, of several brownish carotenoid pigments, including fucoxanthin, in addition to the photosynthetic pigments chlorophyll a and c. With only a few exceptions, brown algae are marine, growing in the colder oceans of the world, many in the tidal zone, where they are subjected to great stress from wave action; others grow in deep...
  • plasmodium name for a stage in the life cycle of a slime mold. Also, Plasmodium is the name given to the genus of the protozoan parasite that causes malaria.
  • pond scum accumulation of floating green algae on the surface of stagnant or slowly moving waters, such as ponds and reservoirs. One of the commonest forms is Spirogyra.
  • Protista or Protoctista , in the five-kingdom system of classification, a kingdom comprising a variety of unicellular and some simple multinuclear and multicellular eukaryotic organisms. Protists, which are eukaryotes , have cells that have a membrane-bound nucleus, DNA that is associated with histone proteins, and organelles (e.g., mitochondria and chloroplasts). A recently proposed system of classification designates the eukaryotes as one of three great groups of life (beside bacteria and...
  • Protozoa formerly, the name of an animal phylum comprising a large, diverse assortment of microscopic or near-microscopic one-celled heterotrophic organisms ( protozoans ). The term "protozoan" (or the collective...
  • protozoan informal term for the unicellular heterotrophs of the kingdom Protista. Protozoans comprise a large, diverse assortment of microscopic or near-microscopic organisms that live as single cells or in simple colonies and that show no differentiation into tissues. Formerly...
  • puffball or smokeball, fungus in which the aboveground portion is typically a stemless brownish sac with an opening at the top through which issues the dustlike mass of ripe spores. The common puffball is...
  • retrovirus type of RNA virus that, unlike other RNA viruses, reproduces by transcribing itself into DNA. An enzyme called reverse transcriptase allows a retrovirus's RNA to act as the template for this RNA-to-DNA...
  • Rhodophyta phylum (division) of the kingdom Protista consisting of the photosynthetic organisms commonly known as red algae. Most of the world's seaweeds belong to this group. Members of the division have...
  • Sarcodina the largest phylum (11,500 living species and 33,000 fossil species) of protozoans ). It comprises the amebas and related organisms; which are all solitary cells that move and capture food by means of pseudopods, flowing temporary extensions of the cell. Most sarcodines are free living; others are...
  • Sargassum genus of brown algae that has given its name to the Sargasso Sea, where it is found in great abundance. See Phaeophyta ; seaweed.
  • sea lettuce common name for algal species of the genus Ulva. See seaweed ; Chlorophyta.
  • seaweed name commonly used for the multicellular marine algae. Simpler forms, consisting of one cell (e.g., the diatom ) or of a few cells, are not generally called seaweeds; these tiny plants help to make up plankton. The more highly developed types of seaweed usually have a basal disk, called a holdfast, and a...
  • slime mold or slime fungus, a heterotrophic organism once regarded as a fungus but later classified with the Protista. In a recent system of classification based on analysis of nucleic acid (genetic material)...
  • Sporozoa phylum of unicellular heterotrophic organisms of the kingdom Protista. Unlike most other protozoans , sporozoans have no cilia or flagella. All species are parasitic and have elaborate life cycles,...
  • staphylococcus any of the pathogenic bacteria , parasitic to humans, that belong to the genus Staphylococcus. The spherical bacterial cells (cocci) typically occur in irregular clusters [Gr. staphyle =bunch of grapes]. The term staphylococcus is also sometimes used loosely for the cluster arrangement itself and, broadly, for any bacteria with such a growth pattern. The pigments produced by staphylococci are the basis of the names given...
  • streptococcus any of a group of gram-positive bacteria, genus Streptococcus, some of which cause disease. Streptococci are spherical and divide by fission, but they remain attached and so grow in beadlike chains. The incidence and severity of streptococcal diseases...
  • Streptomyces bacterial genus of the order Actinomycetales, members of which resemble fungi in their branching filamentous structure. Various species produce such antibiotics as streptomycin and various tetracyclines...
  • thallophyte common name for members of the Thallophyta (or Thallobionta), a taxonomic group in some archaic classification systems that comprised algae , fungi , and lichens. The thallophytes were considered...
  • truffle [Fr.], subterranean edible fungus that forms a mutually beneficial (symbiotic) relationship with the roots of certain trees and plants. The part of the fungus used as food is the ascoma, the...
  • trypanosome microscopic, one-celled protozoan of the genus Trypanosoma, typically living as an active parasite in the bloodstream of a vertebrate; hundreds of species are known. A trypanosome is long and pointed and possesses a flagellum. The flagellum arises at the...
  • virus parasite with a noncellular structure composed mainly of nucleic acid within a protein coat. Viruses usually are too small (100-2,000 Angstrom units) to be seen with the light microscope and thus must be studied by electron microscopes. In one stage of their life...
  • water mold common name for a group of multinucleated organisms that superficially resemble fungi but are now recognized as having an independent evolutionary lineage and are placed in the kingdom Protista....
  • yeast name applied specifically to a certain group of microscopic fungi and to commercial products consisting of masses of dried yeast cells or of yeast mixed with a starchy material and pressed into yeast cakes. Although a number of fungi are sometimes called yeasts,...
Browse by alphabet: