PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT

What are Protists?

What follows below is a very simple explanation. If you wish to read a more advanced treatment of the question, see "What is a Protist?", by Alastair Simpson, from our affiliate The International Society of Protistologists. Or if a video is easier, see this one from our affiliate The Microbiology Society: What are protists?

​

​Protists are creatures that are made of only one cell. They are "unicellular", unlike animals and plants that are made of many cells. Of course, bacteria are also unicellular, but protists are much more complex than bacteria. Like plants and animals, protists have defined structures inside them, such as a nucleus, mitochondria, and sometimes chloroplasts. Bacterial lack these structures. In other words, except for being only one cell, protists are very similar to plants, animals, and even fungi.

​

In fact, plants, animals, and fungi arose from protist ancestors. Some protists are animal-like, having to eat food to survive. Some protists, are more like fungi, in that they absorb dissolved food. And some protists have chloroplasts, much like plants, that they use to to convert sunlight into food. But it gets weird; some protists have an amazing ability to photosynthesize using chloroplast and to eat food - they are simultaneously plant- and animal-like. 

​

Not only are protists diverse in the way they get their nutrition, they are also taxonomically very diverse, much more so than plants, animals, and fungi. And protists are widely distributed, occupying every environment, possibly with the exception of the air - they can't fly. All this variation makes the the study of protists extremely diverse, providing an an abundance of opportunities for reseach . ... More....to be added.