Question

You receive a sample slide of an organism. While observing it under a microscope, you notice that the organism is single-celled and green in color. There are multiple individual organisms on the slide. Based on this initial information, you guess that it is either a bacterium or a protist. Which trait is least likely to help you identify the correct group of this organism? (1 point) Responses the presence of cell structures in the cell the presence of cell structures in the cell the absence of a nucleus the absence of a nucleus the presence of different cell shapes the presence of different cell shapes the absence of cell structure membranes

Answer 1

To identify whether the organism is a bacterium or a protist, the trait that is least likely to help you differentiate between the two groups is "the presence of different cell shapes."

Both bacteria and protists can exhibit a variety of shapes and forms; for example, bacteria can be cocci (spherical), bacilli (rod-shaped), or spirilla (spiral-shaped), while protists can take on many different cellular shapes as well. Therefore, the diversity of cell shapes is not a strong distinguishing factor between these two groups.

On the other hand, the presence or absence of a nucleus and cell structure membranes, as well as the presence of specific cell structures, are more informative traits that can help differentiate between bacteria (prokaryotes, which lack a nucleus) and protists (eukaryotes, which have a nucleus).