PROTOZOA

Protozoa
• Protozoa (singular, protozoan), from the Greek “protos” and “zoon”
meaning first animal, are eucaryotic protist
• They occur generally as single cells and may be distinguished from
other eucaryotic protists by their ability to move at some stage of their
life cycle and by their lack of cell walls
• Protozoa are predominantly microscopic in size
• The majority are between 5 and 250 µm in diameter
• Colonies of protozoa also occur in which individual cells are joined by
cytoplasmic threads or are embedded in a common matrix
Protozoa
• The study of these eucaryotic protists is called protozoology
• There are more than 65,000 described species of protozoa distributed
among seven named phyla
• About 48,000 members of what was then known as a single phylum
Protozoa
• 50 percent of the species are fossil forms
• 22,000 are free-living species while 10,000 species are parasitic
• Only a few species cause disease in humans, but these few inflict
much misery and death on millions of people
OCCURRENCE OF PROTOZOA
• Protozoa are found in all moist habitats
• They are common in the sea, in soil, water
• Free-living protozoa have even been found in the polar regions and at very
high altitudes
• Parasitic protozoa may be found in association with most animal groups
• Many protozoa survive dry conditions by the formation of a resistant cyst,
or dormant stage
• For example, the soil amoeba Naegleria is a resistant cyst in dry weather, is
a naked amoeba in moist soil, and becomes flagellated when flooded with
water
OCCURRENCE OF PROTOZOA
• Parasitic protozoa can modify their morphology and physiology to
cope with a change in host
• For example, the malarial parasite Plasmodium produces male
gametes in response to a drop in temperature on transfer from a warm-
blooded mammalian host to a mosquito
• The distribution of trophic (vegetative) forms of protozoa in the sea
and freshwater and of cyst forms in the atmosphere has resulted in the
spread of free-living species throughout the world
Free-Living Protozoa
• Free-living protozoa are found in a variety of habitats
• The factors which influence the distribution and number of free-living
protozoa in a habitat are:
• Moisture
• Temperature
• Light
• Available nutrients, and other physical and chemical conditions
• The vegetative, or trophic stages of free-living protozoa occur in every
type of salt water, freshwater, sand, soil, and decaying organic matter
Free-Living Protozoa
Light
• Those protozoa which bear chromatophores (these protozoa are
considered algae by phycologists) and carry out photosynthesis,
sunlight is essential
• It follows also that those protozoa which feed on photosynthetic
microorganisms also require sunlight, albeit indirectly
• Some protozoa avoid light and thrive in a environment where it is
absent
Free-Living Protozoa
Hydrogen-Ion Concentration
• Some protozoa can tolerate a wide range of pH, for example, pH 3.2 to 8.7
• The majority a pH range of 6.0 to 8.0 is optimal for maximum metabolic
activity
Nutrients
• Population in an aquatic environment is influenced by the chemical
constituents of the water
• Some protozoa thrive in water rich in oxygen but low in organic matter
(mountain springs, brooks, or ponds)
• Others require water rich in minerals
Free-Living Protozoa
• Some grow in water where there is active oxidation and degradation of
organic matter (the majority of freshwater protozoa, such as the
ciliates)
• Still others prefer water with little oxygen but many decomposition
products (e.g., black bottom slime and sewage)
• Some species have been found to live in both salt water and freshwater
• The nutrient supply in a habitat is a major determining factor in the
distribution and number of protozoa within it
• Species of Paramecium and other holozoic protozoa (protozoa that eat
other organisms) must have a supply of bacteria or other protozoa
Free-Living Protozoa
Temperature
• Most protozoa have an optimum temperature of between 16 and 25°C; the
maximum is between 36 and 40°C
• The minimum temperature is less detrimental
• The temperature tolerance varies with different environmental conditions
• Even warm waters (30 to 56°C) of hot springs have been known to contain
protozoa
• The so-called red snow of high altitudes is due to the presence of several
hematochrome-bearing flagellates (considered algae by some biologists)
• In the encysted stage (a thick-walled structure in an inactive stage),
protozoa can withstand a far greater temperature variation than in the
trophic stage
Symbiotic Protozoa
• The association between these protozoa and their hosts or other organisms
can differ in various ways
• The term symbiotic describes any type of coexistence between different
organisms
• In commensalism the host is neither injured nor benefited, but the
commensal is benefited
• Ectocommensalism is often represented by protozoa which attach
themselves to a host's body
• Endocommensalism is the association when the protozoan is inside the
host's body, e.g., the protozoa which live in the lumen of the alimentary
tract.
Symbiotic Protozoa
• Mutualism occurs between some protozoa and their hosts
• For example, certain flagellates are present in the gut of termites and
digest the woody material eaten by the termite to a glycogenous
substance which can be used by the host cells
• If deprived of these flagellates, the termite dies; if the flagellates are
removed from the termite gut, they too perish
• In parasitism, one organism—the parasite—lives at the expense of the
other
Symbiotic Protozoa
• The parasite feeds on the host cells or cell fragments by pseudopodia
or cytostome or enters the host tissues and cells, living upon the
cytoplasm and even the nuclei
• As a result the host may develop pathological conditions
• The sporozoa are strictly parasitic and are among the most important
of the disease-producing protozoa
• Some parasitic protozoa parasitize other protozoan or metazoan
(animals whose bodies consist of many cells) parasites
• Such an association is termed hyperparasitism
THE IMPORTANCE OF PROTOZOA
• Protozoa serve as an important link in the food chain of communities
in aquatic environments
• For example, in marine waters. zooplankton (animal like organisms) are
protozoa that feed on the photosynthetic phytoplankton (plant like organisms).
They in turn become food for larger marine organisms.
• This food chain can be represented as follows:
THE IMPORTANCE OF PROTOZOA
• Also of particular importance in the ecological balance of many
communities, in wetlands as well as aquatic environments, are the
saprophytic and bacteria feeding protozoa
• They make use of the substances produced and organisms involved in
the final decomposition stage of organic matter
• This can be represented by the following sequence:
THE IMPORTANCE OF PROTOZOA
• Biological sewage treatment involves both anaerobic digestion and/or
aeration
• Anaerobic protozoa such as species of Metopus, Saprodinium, and
Epalxis are active in the anaerobic steps, while those treatment steps
requiring aeration and flocculation include the aerobic protozoa such
as Bodo. Paramecium, Aspidisca, and Vorticella
• In the treatment of industrial wastes, where there is an accumulation of
nitrates and phosphates, the settling tanks are illuminated to promote
the growth of algae and protozoa
THE IMPORTANCE OF PROTOZOA
• These protists remove the inorganic material from the water for their
own synthesis
• Water quality is improved, and the autotrophs are skimmed from the
water surface, dried, and used as fertilizer
• Some protozoa cause disease in animals, including humans. They have
caused untold misery
• Such parasitic protozoa multiply within the host much as bacteria do
THE IMPORTANCE OF PROTOZOA
• Some live only as obligate parasites and may produce chronic or acute
diseases in humans
• Some well-known protozoan diseases in humans are intestinal
amoebiasis, African sleeping sickness, and malaria
• Protozoa have also become important research organisms for
biologists and biochemists for the following reasons:
• Many protozoa are easily cultured and maintained in the laboratory
• Their capacity to reproduce asexually enables clones to be established with the
same genetic makeup
THE IMPORTANCE OF PROTOZOA
• Studies of mating types and killer particles in Paramecium have
shown, relationship between genotype and the maintenance of
cytoplasmic inclusions and endosymbionts
• Tetrohymena, Euplotes and Paramecium species have been used to
study cell cycles and nucleic acid biosynthesis during cell division
MORPHOLOGY OF PROTOZOA
• The size and shape of these organisms show considerable variation.
For example Leishmania donovani, the cause of the human disease
kala azar, measures I to 4 µm in length. Amoeba proteus measures 600
µm or more
• Certain common ciliates reach 2000 µm, or 2 mm, and the tests (a kind
of protective envelope) of some extinct (fossilized) members of
Foreminiferida, the nummulites, measure up to 15 cm in diameter
Intracellular Structure
• Like all eucaryotic cells, the protozoan cell also consists of cytoplasm,
separated from the surrounding medium by a special cell envelope,
and the nucleus or nuclei
Cytoplasm
• The cytoplasm is a more or less homogeneous substance consisting of
globular protein molecules loosely linked together to form a three-
dimensional molecular framework
• Embedded within it are the various structures that give protozoan cells
their characteristic appearance
Intracellular Structure
• Submicroscopic protein fibrils (fibrillar bundles, myonemes, and
microtubules) are groups of parallel fibrils in the cytoplasm
• Protozoan contractility is probably due to these fibrils
• In several forms of protozoa, pigments are diffused throughout the
cytoplasm
• The hues are numerous; e.g., they can be green, brown, blue, purple,
or rose
Intracellular Structure
• In the majority of protozoa, the cytoplasm is differentiated into the
ectoplasm and the endoplasm
• The ectoplasm is more gel-like and the endoplasm is more voluminous
and fluid, but the change from one layer to another is gradual
• Structures are predominantly found in the endoplasm
• Like other eucaryotic cells, protozoa have membrane systems in the
cytoplasm
• They form a more or less continuous network of canals and lacunae
giving rise to the endoplasmic reticulum of the cell
Intracellular Structure
• Other structures in the cytoplasm include:
• Ribosomes
• Golgi complexes or dictyosomes (piles of membranous sacs)
• Mitochondria
• Kinetosomes or blepharoplasts (intracytoplasmic basal bodies of cilia or
flagella)
• Food vacuoles
• Contractile vacuoles, and
• Nuclei
Intracellular Structure
Nucleus
• The cell has at least one eucaryotic nucleus
• Many protozoa, however, have multiple nuclei (e.g., almost all
ciliates) throughout the greater part of the life cycle
• The protozoan nuclei are of various forms, sizes, and structures
• In several species, each individual organism has two similar nuclei
Intracellular Structure
• In the ciliates, two dissimilar nuclei, one large (macronucleus) and one
small (micronucleus), are present
• The macronucleus controls the metabolic activities and regeneration
processes; the micronucleus is concerned with reproductive activity
• The essential structural elements of the nucleus are:
• The chromosomes
• The nucleolar substance
• The nuclear membrane, and
• The karyoplasm (nucleoplasm)
Intracellular Structure
• It has been shown that the number of chromosomes is constant for a
particular species of protozoan
• For example, Spirotrichonympha polygyru has 2 haploid
chromosomes; Spirotrichosoma magnum has 60
• Some protozoa divide only asexually (by mitosis)
• Others may divide either asexually or sexually (by meiosis)
Intracellular Structure
Plasmalemma and Other Cell Covering
• The cytoplasm with its various structures is separated from the
external environment by a cell unit membrane (plasmalemma)
• The plasmalemma not only provides protection but also controls
exchange of substances (semipermeable);
• It is the site of perception of chemical and mechanical stimuli as well as the
establishment of contact with other cells (cell sensitivity to external factors)
• Although all protozoa possess a cell membrane, many protozoa have
compound coverings of membranes modified for protection, support,
and movement
Intracellular Structure
• Such combinations of membranes are referred to as a pellicle
• In Euglena the pellicle is organized to ensure flexibility; in Paramecium it is
quite rigid
• Actually, in its simplest form, the pellicle is the plasmalemma itself,
e.g., amoebas are surrounded by a plasmalemma only
• However, some species (e.g., A. proteus) have a diffuse layer of
mucopolysaccharides over the plasmalemma
• This layer is thought to play an important role in pinocytosis or in adhesion of
the cell to the substratum
Intracellular Structure
• The pellicle of a ciliate is thick and often
variously ridged and sculptured
• There may even be rows of elevated platelets
and nodular thickenings
• For example, the pellicle of Paramecium
consists of three membranes, the outer one
sculptured in a series of evenly distributed
polygons
• The contact between adjacent polygons
results in a series of ridges, giving a latticed
pattern
Intracellular Structure
• Additional protective coverings external to the pellicle have also
evolved for some protozoa
• This results in the great diversity of forms exhibited by protozoa
• These coverings are known variously as:
• Thecac
• Shells
• Tests, or
• Loricae and occur in almost all major groups of protozoa
Intracellular Structure
• The theca is a secreted layer directly apposed to the cell surface
• Tests, shells, and lorica are coverings that are loose fitting
• Special openings provide the connection with the environment
• The coverings consist of very different materials
• In general, they have an organic matrix reinforced by incrustation of
inorganic substances such as calcium carbonate or silica
Intracellular Structure
• We are familiar with mountain ranges or geological deposits-of
limestone, fusuline chalk, and green sandstone
• These were formed by continuous sinking of calcareous shells and
silicon skeletons of planktonic amoebas and other protozoa to the
bottom of ancient oceans
• For example, the white cliffs of Dover are made up of billions of
scales of the phytoflagellates called coccolithopharids plus the shells
of millions of foraminiferans
Intracellular Structure
Intracellular Structure
Feeding Structures
• Food gathering structures in the protozoa are diverse and range from the
pseudopodia of amoebas through the tentacular feeding tubes of suctorians
to the well-developed "mouths" of many ciliates
• Amoebas gather food by means of pseudopodial engulfment
• In ciliates the cytostome is the actual opening through which food is
ingested
• It ranges from a simple round opening to a slitlike structure surrounded by
feeding membranelles
• It is usually found anteriorly and remains open all the time in some groups;
in other species it can be opened and closed
Intracellular Structure
Intracellular Structure
• An oral groove is an indentation in
the pellicle of certain ciliates
• It guides food toward the cytostome
and acts as a concentrating device
• The addition of membranelles to the
oral groove makes it a peristome
• On its edges are located cilia that
function to facilitate feeding
• The cytopharynx is a region through
which nutrients must pass to be
enclosed in a food vacuole