Suggested Kingdom for organisms with shared Characteristics:

1) Most chromists produce cells with Two laterally inserted flagella, one whiplash and one tinsel.

2) Most chromists are Photosynthetic (justification for calling them plants).  In addition to chlorophyll a, they contain chlorophyll c and other pigments.

3) laminarin starch or leucosine oil is food storage

4) In most chromist cells the Chloroplast and nucleus share a common membrane.

5)  The cells of chromists usually produce cell walls (plant like trait) with either silica, calcium carbonate, or cellulose.

6) Mostly Aquatic environments.

-Sexual attractant found in several species of brown algae (phaeophyta)  

-More primitive sexual attractant, more advanced species of phaeophyta use fucoserrastene, a more complex sexual attractant.

Diatom  

-Have silica walls that come in two basic shapes: Centric (radially symmetric) and Pennate (bilaterally symmetric).

-Gametes can be flagellated (one tinsel and one whiplash)

-Life cycle is diploid with the formation of an  auxospore being the key feature.

-Old silica walls of diatoms settle on lake and ocean floors.  Accumulations over time yield diatomeous earth that is mined for use in water filters, insulation, and silver polish.

-Silicoflagellates are a small group of unicellular heterokont algae, found in marine environments.

-Many silicoflagellates have cell walls made of silica and either a single tinsel flagella or one tinsel and one whiplash flagella.

-those lacking cell walls look much like ameboid protozoa, but can form resting cells with silica walls called statospores (statocysts).

-About 1000 species are recognized. 

Chrysolaminarin is a linear polymer of linked glucose units. It used to be known as leucosin. -Chrysolaminarin is arguably one of the most common biopolymers in the world with cellulose being the other.

-Fucoxanthin is found as an accessory pigment in the chloroplasts of brown algae and most other heterokonts, giving them a brown or olive-green color.

-Chloroplasts in brown algae contain chlorophylls a and c as well as fucoxanthin.  

-Some metabolic and nutritional studies carried at Hokkaido University indicate that fucoxanthin promotes fat burning within fat cells in white adipose tissue

"Poorly Nourished"

-clear body of water, usually a deep-water lake that is well oxygenated.  

 -The few nutrients present support a diverse but very sparse population of phytoplankton.  

-Seasonal (spring and fall) algal are common. 

"Well Nourished"

-turbid body of water, usually a small shallow lake with cycles of oxygen depletion.

-Although the abundance of available nutrients supports large numbers of phytoplankton, few species are present.

-Blooms occur regularly throughout the growing season 

"defective" nutrition characteristic of small brown water lakes or ponds that are oxygen depleted and often acidic due to the accumulation of un-decomposed organic matter (humic acid). 

-Supports growth of a few algal species that tolerate these conditions. 

1.  Bottle sample

-Small sample size, very detailed observation)

2. Plankton Nets

-Larger sample size, net restrictions when things can fit through the mesh)

-Drag net through water and measure distance so you can calculate the size of the water column sampled.  Can be a vertical or horizontal tow. 

3. Satellite Sensors

-Not detailed, can look at flourescence, major blooms, etc. 

Coccolithophores (also called coccolithophorids) are single-celled algae, protists and phytoplankton. They are distinguished by special calcium carbonate plates of unknown purpose called coccoliths (calcareous nannoplankton), which are important microfossils.

-Most coccolithophorids have two flagella (one tinsel and one whiplash), but form cell walls of calcium carbonate instead of silica.  Once only known from fossil records, they are now recognized as the principle component of phytoplankton in open ocean waters far from shore 

-Coccolithophores are exclusively marine and are found in large numbers throughout the surface euphotic zone of the ocean. An example of a globally-significant coccolithophore is Emiliania huxleyi.

plasmodial (true) slime molds are commonly found in soil or on rotting logs (terrestrial habitats)

-vegetative plasmodia consist of multinucleate wall-less protoplasm that can weigh up to 20-30 grams and spread out over several meters.  the nuclei of the plasmodia are diploid.

-Origin of "The Blob", big amoeba blob that engulfs and digests other organisms.  (20-30 grams is huge for a single cell with tonds of cytoplasm in it.) 

Cellular slime molds have a dominant vegetative phase of their life cycle in which free living haploid cells called myxamoeba aggregate under the right conditions to form a short-lived structure called a pseudoplasmodium or Slug. 

-In some species, the slug can migrate away from the site of aggregation and differentiate into a Sorocarp which is a cell-walled mitosporangium.

-This sorocarp consists of a base, a stalk, and a spore capsule.  From this more myxoamoeba are produced when mitospores from the spore capsule germinate. 

An oospore is a thick-walled sexual spore that develops from a fertilized oosphere in some algae and fungi.

-during fertilization, the male nuclei are created in the antheridia which develope from the tips of other filaments from the same individual and travel down fertilization tubes toward the oogonia where they fuse with female nuclei to produce a thick-walled zygote called an oospore.

-Cellular slime molds

-During sexual reproduction, two myxoamoebae are paired to form a dormant zygote called a macrocyst.  

-Germinating macrocysts divide meiotically to produce new haploid myxamoebae. 

Brown Algae 

-Alginate is used in various pharmaceuticals preparations. 

-Alginate is used extensively as a mold-making material in dentistry, prosthetics, lifecasting, and in textiles. It is also used in the food industry, for thickening soups and jellies.

-Calcium alginate is used in different types of medical products, including burn dressings that promote healing and which can be removed with less pain than conventional dressings.

brown algae

-Some brown algae divide in distinct meristematic regions one of which is intercalary Meristem.

Not fungi, included in either protista or chromista.

-always heterotrophic (NOT photosynthetic)

 -Live as saprobes or parasites

-No commercial uses known, useful as a research organism. 

1)The eggs of Fucus are released into the surrounding seawater and after fertilization they settle on to a solid substratum.

2) development of a localized protuberance is the first sign of the formation of a rhizoid by which the young plant becomes attached to the rock.

3) the holdfast portion of the cell will always form on the shady side of the light gradient.   Influenced by features such as light, heat, pH, and osmotic activity.

4) 12 hours after fertilization, the nuclear surface becomes highly polarized with finger-like projections radiating toward the site of the rizoid formation.

5) these projections represent mebraneous extensions of the nuclear envelope and mitochondria, ribosomes, etc are highly concentrated in the rhizoidal half of the zygote. 

-Plasmodium is easy to grow and large masses of it may be sampled without adverse effects.

-Cytoplasmic streaming is very easy to observe and study in the plasmodial stage of plasmodial slime molds.

-A contractile protien called myxomyosin is involved in this process of plasmodia which is analogous to the actinomyosin involved in muscle contraction.  

-Synchronous nuclear division in plasmodia lends itself to cytological and biochemical study of mitotic events. 

Two parasitic oomycetes have had a major impact on world history:

1) Phytophtora (genus name of most blights, means "The plant Destroyer") infestans 

-Nearly wiped out all european potato crops in the summer of 1846.  Ireland was severely effected- primary food crop for the poor at that time.  close to a million people died, 1.5 emigrated.

2) Plasmopara viticola (causes downy mildew on grapes, vitti=wine)

-Thirty years after the potato famine, Plasmopara viticola nearly wiped out the french wine industry.  -Saved by bordeaux mixture which was the first chemical spray to be used for the control of a plant disease.

You know this shit

-Under conditions of optimal light, temperature, nutrient levels, etc.  a single phytoplankton species can proliferate in algal blooms.

-Eutrophication is the natural or artificial addition of nutrients to a body of water.

-Eutrophication at the right time of the year, such as summer months, can cause a spike in population that is dependant on nutrient levels, when the levels are high, blooms can occur. 

1) small group of about 700 species with enormous ecological and economic impact. 

2) Live in water (marine, fresh, stagnant) as free-living saprobes or as parasites on fish, amphibians, aquatic invertebrates, and diatoms. (some parasites are very ecologically important-attack plants from seed all the way up to trees. negatively effect agriculture)

3) Other parasites live in moist soil, and many of these infect seed plants.  Some are obligate parasites that have devastating effects on many flowering plants.  These include blights on eucalyptus trees, potatoes, pineapples, etc. Downy mildews on crops like grapes, lettuce, corn, etc. and Damping off diseases of seedlings of all kinds.

4) individual species resemble fungi (heterotrophic, most are non-septate, coencytic filaments)  A few are unicellular.

5) unlike all of the other fungal groups however,  most members of oomycota produce cell walls made of cellulose, not chitin -this justifies their exclusion from the kingdom fungi.

6) while sometimes classified as protists, molecular data and other morphological and sexual characteristics justify their inclusion in the kingdom Chromista.

7) Some taxonomists have recently suggested another separate kingdom Stramenopila as a place where oomycetes and some other oddballs could reside.

Characteristics oomycetes share with the kingdom Chromista:

1) Asexually produce spores with one whiplash and one tinsel flagella.

2) Store energy in the form of mycolaminarin (Chemically similar to laminatin and chrysolaminarin)

3) Growth in aquatic habitats (as water molds) or under moist conditions.

4) Diploid life cycles with gametic meiosis.

General Characteristics:

1) macroscopic marine plants~1800 species

2) Chlorophylls a and c and fucoxanthin

3) Laminarin starch

4) Cell wall Alginates that serve a function and commercial use similar to carageenan. 

5) Flagellated gametes matching the chromista characteristics.

6) growth forms that include Filaments, Parenchyma, and pseudoparenchyma (no known unicellular or colonial species.)

7) cells that divide either diffusely in the algal body, or more commonly in distinct meristematic regions (apical, marginal, intercalary, trichothallic)

8) An algal body that generally consists of a hold fast, stipe, and blade which in some species also includes air bladders.

9) Alternation of generation lifecycles, either isomorphic or heteromorphic,  Diploid lifecycles are approached in a few (fucus).  

10) Some brown algae are Harvested fpr food.

-Two examples of hour brown algae have been used experimentally include 1) ectocarpene and fucoserrastene as sexual attractants and 2) establishment of polar zygotes

Mostly unicellular or filamentous plankton.

-important primary producers in both marine and freshwater habitats.

-possess chlorophyll a + c and fucozanthin as photosynthetic pigments.

-produce chrysolaminarin or oil as food storage products. 

Golden Algae

-Many have cell walls made of silica and either a single tinsel flagella or one tinsel and one whiplash flagella.  

-Aquatic

-produce Hetrokont-like cells at some stage of their lifecycle.

-Vegetative amoeboid cells in this group secrete filaments that form a network of narrow tubular sheaths along which the cells travel. 

-One species of this group causes Wasting disease of seagrass.  (net fungi paralyzes and kills seagrass.)

-commonly found in soil or on rotting logs.  i.e. Terrestrial.

-Vegetative "plasmodia" consist of multinucleate wall-less protoplasm that can weigh up to 30 grams and spread across several meters.

-nuclei of plasmodia are diploid.

-germinating spores form either biflagellated gametes or amoeboid feeding cells.

protists

-found mostly in soil, under leaf litter, or under bark of rotting logs.

-Dominant vegetative phase consists of free-living haploid cells called Myxoamoebae.

-In some species, the slug can migrate away from the site of aggregation and differentiate into a Sorocarp which is a cell-walled mitosporangium.

-This sorocarp consists of a base, a stalk, and a spore capsule.  From this more myxoamoeba are produced when mitospores from the spore capsule germinate.

 -Cellular slime molds are used routinely as model organisms for the study of cell communication.

-Acrasin, a chemical message identical to cyclic AMP, is used for communication between cells.

-Also important in the study of  the developmental phenomenon of cell differentiation, migration, and de-differentiation which parrallel events involved in early animal development.

-Free floating microscopic plants

-a teaspoon of water can contain as many as a million phytoplankton

-during photosynthesis, they absorb sunlight, grow, and generate oxygen which makes all aquatic life possible.

Phylum Names of:

-Brown Algae 

-Coccolithophores

-diatoms

-oomycetes

-slime molds 

-phaeophyta

-haptophyta

-bacillariophyta

-oomycota

myxomycota 

used routinely as model organisms for research of cell communication.

-have a chemical message called acrasin similar to cAMP

-Also used to study the developmental phenomenon of cell differentiation, migration, and de-differentiation that parrallells events in early animal development