Unicellular Organisms

Content

• characteristics
• Examples of single-celled organisms
• Can serve you

The unicellular organisms are part of our life through such everyday items as bread or wine (which are made with ferments or yeasts, unicellular organisms), we even usually have them in the intestine or on the skin, without this meaning being sick.

We also consume dietary supplements based on algae, for example, or we apply cosmetic products that are obtained from them.

All the living beings They present different degrees of complexity in terms of their structure or internal organization, that is why we have:

• Higher bodies: They are characterized by presenting organs and tissues, the latter are made up of numerous specialized cells, and the cells of the different tissues present some differential characteristics.
• Lower organisms: Are from much simpler structure, to the point that sometimes they are made up of only one undifferentiated cell: these organisms are known as unicellular organisms.

In the latter, all vital functions depend on that single cell, What can be prokaryotic (with free nuclear material in the cytoplasm) or eukaryotic (with the nuclear material enclosed in the nuclear membrane). This single cell regulates itself and directs all vital functions.

See also: Examples of Prokaryotic and Eukaryotic Cells

characteristics

Obviously, unicellular organisms cannot be seen with the naked eye (since a cell is always something very small), but with microscopes.

The fact of being such small individuals involves a series of advantage:

• The high surface / volume ratio, which facilitates contact with the external environment and therefore, nutrition.
• Have them closely spaced cell compartments, which contributes to their typical accelerated metabolism and fast reproductive rate that characterizes them.

Usually they reproduce by bipartition (cell division), some may also present phenomena of gemmation and of sporulation, all these processes are based on mitosis.

Many single-celled beings they group forming colonies. In the case of bacteria They are unicellular, outside the cell there is an additional structure called the wall, which has important functions.

We can find unicellular organisms in three of the five kingdoms in which living beings are divided:

• Monera: Kingdom represented by bacteria and in which all its members are unicellular.
• Protista: Only some members are.
• Fungi: Only yeasts are unicellular.

It can serve you: Examples from Each Kingdom

Examples of single-celled organisms

Can serve you

• Examples of Unicellular and Multicellular Organisms
• Examples of Multicellular Organisms
• Examples of Eukaryotic and Prokaryotic Cells