Chapter 19.1, Problem 6MI

Summary Introduction

To list:

Two characteristics that distinguish fungus-like protists from fungi

Introduction:

Protists are not animals, plants or fungi because they do not have all the characteristics necessary to place them in any of these kingdoms. All protists are eukaryotes. There are more than 200,000 organisms in the kingdom Protista. They are classified into three groups based on the method of obtaining nutrition.

Answer to Problem 6MI

  

Explanation of Solution

The three groups of protists are animal like protists, plant like protists and fungus like protists.

Fungus like protists obtains nutrition by absorbing nutrients from other organisms. In this aspect they are similar to fungi but they are not classified as fungi because they contain centrioles- small, cylindrical organelles that are involved in mitosis and are absent in cells of fungi. They also differ from fungi in the composition of their cell walls.