Protists are a diverse, polyphyletic assemblage of predominantly unicellular eukaryotic organisms that do not fit within the traditional kingdoms of animals, plants, or fungi and are therefore used as a conceptual rather than taxonomic grouping in modern systematics. They exhibit a wide range of cellular organizations (from solitary to colonial and simple multicellular forms), nutritional strategies (photoautotrophy, heterotrophy, mixotrophy), and modes of locomotion (flagella, cilia, pseudopodia). As a topic in biology, “protists” encompasses key model systems for studying eukaryotic cell biology, endosymbiosis, genome evolution, and the ecological roles of microbial eukaryotes in aquatic and soil ecosystems.
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