Protists are one of the six kingdoms of life. They are simple eukaryotic microorganisms that do not fall into the plant, animal, bacteria or fungus groups.

Long cast as villains, some protists, such as Blastocystis, are potentially beneficial to human health.

Protists provide the foundation for understanding the origins and developmental innovations underlying the evolution of multicellular taxa (Baldauf, 2003).

Protists are found across the planet in a variety of ecosystems. Some species, like certain marine plankton protists and human disease-causing protists have been studied closely.

The protists her team studied are among the smallest in the ocean, measuring two to five microns, roughly the size of a dust particle or small mold spore.

Protists from two groups, choanozoa and picozoa, were never found without viral genes in their cellular cargo. It was a bizarre discovery, said Julia Brown, a microbiologist at Bigelow Laboratory ...

Protists are predators of bacteria, and they help shape soil communities by munching on bacteria (sorry, bacteria). Researchers knew that protists could identify prey when they were in direct contact ...

New discoveries of protists and other microbial species and their ways of living are creating a very different view and appreciation for life in all its forms.

Single-celled protists in the guts of animals thrive without the ‘powerhouse of the cell’ Genomic analysis suggests the oxymonad lineage lost their mitochondria about 100 million years ago ...

Single-celled protists in the guts of animals thrive without mitochondria, study finds by Public Library of Science Schematic evolutionary tree of the five microbial species included in the study.

Protists are a group of microscopic organisms, unrelated to bacteria, animals or fungi. They’re their own varied collection of tiny organisms, usually only made up of a single cell.

Protists such as this Euplotes are common in water, soil, even moss. (IMAGE) Duke University. Caption. Scientists say a few simple measures of a protist’s cell size and shape can be powerful ...