Phylum Sarcodina

Teachings of Baylor and DJ.

Phylum Sarcodina

Human Diseases

Most amoebas are free-living, but some species live in the intestines of humans and animals.

Entamoeba Histolytica can cause serious illness in humans. It secretes enzymes that attack the intestinal lining, this fatal disease is called amebic dysentrery.

Summary

Sarcodina includes hundreds of species of amoebas, which inhabit water and soil. These protozoa are found living on mud, rocks, and other surfaces in shallow slow moving streams and ponds.

Move by thrusting out Pseudopodia. Pseudopodia forms when the endoplasm pushes the ectoplasm froward to create a blunt like extension.

It has a contractile vacuole, an organelle that expels fluid from the cell. To maintain homeostasis, many fresh water protozoa have contractile vacuole that rid the cell of axcess water.

Ecological role

Phylum Sporozoa

Many sarcodines are "naked" that is, their cell membranes are exposed directly to the environment. A Test is protective shell over the cell membrane. Foraminifera are an ancient group of shelled sarcodins found in oceans.

Radiolarians is the oldest, they live in shallow open water and their shells contain silicon dioxide.

Summary

6,000 species make up the the phylum. Most species are parasitic and have complex life cycles. They are carried in the blood and tissue of their hosts. They absorb nutrients and destroy host cell tissues. Toxoplasma gondii is a parasite found in animals, in humans it can cause toxoplasmosis. Toxoplasmosis doesn't effect healthy adults but it's dangerous to growing a fetus or infants.

Diseases

The most well know sorozoam is plasmodiom. This protozoan causes malaria. Malaria is a disease wich consists of severe chills, fever, sweating, fatigue and great thirst. Victims die of kidney failure and brain damage. Plazmodiam sporozoites enter the blood stream and travel to liver cells where they divide rapidly. New spores called merozoities emerge and infect red blood cells, where they produce asexually. Some of the merozoities in the blood develope into specialized cells called gametocytes.

Phylum Zoomastigina

Summary

There are 2,500 species that make up the Zoomastigina. Characterized by the presence of one or more flagelle - long hair like structers used for moving.

Disease

Some important parasite are Zooflagellates. Most of them belong to the genus Trypanosoma. They live in the blood of fish, reptiles, birds, and mammals. They are carried from host to host by bloodsucking insects. Some species are non-pathogenic, but others produce severe diseases in humans and animals. For example, the sickness "African Trypanosomiasis" It is transmitted by the tsetse fly. This disease is characterized by increasing fever, lethargy, mental deterioration and coma

Continued

The chagas disease is transmitted by and

insect called the kissing bug, people with the disease suffer from fever and severe heart damage. Zooflagellate is transmitted by sand flies, blood disease that infects Africa and Latin America. It has disfigured skin sores. Giardiasis is an illness that causes severe diarrhea and intestinal cramps. Animals carry the parasite and contaminate water with poop. Thousands of cases occur in the U.S. but is not fatal.

Phylum Ciliophora

Structure

A clear elastic layer of protein called pellicle surrounds the cell membrane

They have an oral groove that is lined with cilla. The cilla create currents that sweep food down to the mouth pore, opens to the gullet that circulates food throughout the cytoplasm. Food not digested moves to the anal pore where they are expelled

Summary

8,000 species make up this phyla

They are called that because they swim by means of cilia, which are short hair like cytoplasmic projections that line the cell membrane.

Cilia beat in synchronized strokes that pass in waves across the cell. They live in ponds and slow oving streams that contain plants and decaying matter.