Physiological Functioning of Protozoa

Abstract

The investigation and characterisation of protozoan physiology often requires an approach which differs markedly from that applied in metazoan studies. Quantifying physiological function in small organisms requires refined micro-techniques, and over and above this technical problem, there are a number of complications which occur in protozoological studies which do not pertain in physiological investigations on most metazoans. First, most protozoans have relatively short life-cycles, particularly at higher temperatures, so that growth and division are rapid, and there is the added complication of variation in the cell size attained before the initiation of division in each species. Secondly the food organisms of the majority of Protozoa also undergo rapid division, which can be an important factor where food concentration is critical in a physiological investigation.