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Concept
Protist locomotion
Summary
Protists are the eukaryotes that cannot be classified as plants, fungi or animals. They are mostly unicellular and microscopic. Many unicellular protists, particularly protozoans, are motile and can generate movement using flagella, cilia or pseudopods. Cells which use flagella for movement are usually referred to as flagellates, cells which use cilia are usually referred to as ciliates, and cells which use pseudopods are usually referred to as amoeba or amoeboids. Other protists are not motile, and consequently have no built-in movement mechanism.
Unicellular protists comprise a vast, diverse group of organisms that covers virtually all environments and habitats, displaying a menagerie of shapes and forms. Hundreds of species of the ciliate genus Paramecium or flagellated Euglena are found in marine, brackish, and freshwater reservoirs; the green algae Chlamydomonas is distributed in soil and fresh water world-wide; parasites from the genus Giardia colonize intestines of several vertebrate species. One of the shared features of these organisms is their motility, crucial for nutrient acquisition and avoidance of danger. In the process of evolution, single-celled organisms have developed in a variety of directions, and thus their rich morphology results in a large spectrum of swimming modes.
Many swimming protists actuate tail-like appendages called flagella or cilia in order to generate the required thrust. This is achieved by actively generating deformations along the flagellum, giving rise to a complex waveform. The flagellar axoneme itself is a bundle of nine pairs of microtubule doublets surrounding two central microtubules, termed the 9+2 axoneme, and cross-linking dynein motors, powered by ATP hydrolysis, perform mechanical work by promoting the relative sliding of filaments, resulting in bending deformations.
Although protist flagella have a diversity of forms and functions, two large families, flagellates and ciliates, can be distinguished by the shape and beating pattern of their flagella.
Official source
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