23.3 Groups of Protists
Key Concepts
By the end of this section, you will be able to do the following:
- Describe representative protist organisms from each of the six presently recognized supergroups of eukaryotes
- Identify the evolutionary relationships of plants, animals, and fungi within the six presently recognized supergroups of eukaryotes
- Identify defining features of protists in each of the six supergroups of eukaryotes.
In the span of several decades, the Kingdom Protista has been disassembled because sequence analyses have revealed new genetic (and therefore evolutionary) relationships among these eukaryotes. Moreover, protists that exhibit similar morphological features may have evolved analogous structures because of similar selective pressures—rather than because of recent common ancestry. This phenomenon, called convergent evolution, is one reason why protist classification is so challenging. The emerging classification scheme groups the entire domain Eukarya into six “supergroups” that contain all of the protists as well as animals, plants, and fungi that evolved from a common ancestor (Figure 23.9). Each of the supergroups is believed to be monophyletic, meaning that all organisms within each supergroup are believed to have evolved from a single common ancestor, and thus all members are most closely related to each other than to organisms outside that group. There is still evidence lacking for the monophyly of some groups. Each supergroup can be viewed as representing one of many variants on eukaryotic cell structure. In each group, one or more of the defining characters of the eukaryotic cell—the nucleus, the cytoskeleton, and the endosymbiotic organelles—may have diverged from the “typical” pattern.
Keep in mind that the classification scheme presented here represents just one of several hypotheses, and the true evolutionary relationships are still to be determined. The six supergroups may be modified or replaced by a more appropriate hierarchy as genetic, morphological, and ecological data accumulate. When learning about protists, it is helpful to focus less on the nomenclature and more on the commonalities and differences that illustrate how each group has exploited the possibilities of eukaryotic life.
Archaeplastida
Molecular evidence supports the hypothesis that all Archaeplastida are descendents of an endosymbiotic relationship between a heterotrophic protist and a cyanobacterium. The protist members of the group include the red algae and green algae. It was from a common ancestor of these protists that the land plants evolved, since their closest relatives are found in this group. The red and green algae include unicellular, multicellular, and colonial forms. A variety of algal life cycles exists, but the most complex is alternation of generations, in which both haploid and diploid stages are multicellular. A diploid sporophyte contains cells that undergo meiosis to produce haploid spores. The spores germinate and grow