Essay/Term paper: Protists and viruses

Essay, term paper, research paper:  Medicine

Protists and Viruses


A flagellum is a whiplike tail that helps organisms living in moist places to
move

The characteristics of protists is they are euckaryotic organisms, they are one
or many-celled but do not have the complex organization found in plants and
animals, and some make there own food and other can't. Protists are plantlike,
animallike and funguslike.

A virus is a microscopic particles that make up either DNA or RNA core covered
by a protein coat. Viruses are so small an electrn microscope is needed to see
them. Viruses are not classified in any kingdom because they are not cells. They
show almost none of the characteristics of living things. The classification of
viruses are based on it's shape, the kind of nucleic acid it contains, and the
type of organism the virus infects. The protein coat of a virus gives the
particle it's shape. Some viruses have tails, some are many sided looking like a
soccer ball and others look like rods. Others look sphere shaped. An active
virus has these steps: Attach--- A specific virus attaches to the surface to a
specific bacterial cell. Invade--- The nucleic acid of the virus injects itself
into the cell Copy--- The viral nucleic acid takes control of the cell, and the
cell begins to make new virus particles. Release--- The cell bursts open and
hundreds of new virus particles are released from te cell. These new viruses go
on to affect other cells.

Algae is a plantlike protist. Some are one celled and others are many-celled.
All algae can make there own food because they have a pigment called chlorophyll
in there chloroplasts. Theses are the phylum of algaes: