1.2 describe the common features shown by eukaryotic organisms: plants, animals, fungi and protoctists

Plants: 
- multicellular organisms
- cells contain chloroplasts
- are able to carry out photosynthesis
- cells have cellulose cell walls
- store carbohydrates as starch or sucrose
- examples include: flowering plants, such as a cereal (eg. maize), and a herbaceous legume (eg. peas or beans). 

Animals: 
- multicellular organisms
- cells do not contain chloroplasts
- not able to carry out photosynthesis
- no cell walls
- store carbohydrate as glycogen
- examples: mammals (eg. humans) and insects (eg. housefly and mosquito). 

Fungi: 
- not able to carry out photosynthesis
- their body is usually organised into a mycelium made from thread-like structures called hyphae, which contain many nuclei
- some examples are single-celled
- their cells have walls made of chitin
- they feed by extracellular secretion of digestive enzymes onto food material and absorption of the organic products; this is known as saprotrophic nutrition
- they store carbohydrate as glycogen
- examples include mucor, (has the typical fungal hyphal structure) and yeast, (single-celled). 

Protoctists: 
- microscopic single-celled organisms
- some, like Amoeba, that live in pond water, have features like an animal cell, while others, like Chlorella, have chloroplasts and are more like plants.
- a pathogenic example is Plasmodium, responsible for causing malaria.