wiz-icon
MyQuestionIcon
MyQuestionIcon
1
You visited us 1 times! Enjoying our articles? Unlock Full Access!
Question

Are protists harmful or helpful?


Open in App
Solution

Protists:

  1. They are simple, unicellular eukaryotic organisms.
  2. They are neither plants nor animals or fungi.
  3. Mode of nutrition- autotrophs (prepare own food), heterotrophs (obtain nutrients from other organisms), and some are decomposers (obtain nutrition from decaying matter).

Harmful Protists:

  1. They cause disease in their hosts or failure of crops.
  2. Example- Trypanosoma (causes sleeping sickness), Giardia (causes Giardiasis, a gastrointestinal infection), and Plasmodium (causes malaria).

Helpful Protists:

  1. Some of the protists are useful for humans and other organisms.
  2. Examples- brown and red algae (used as food for humans as well as other marine life).
  3. They also produce a large amount of oxygen and are involved in nutrient recycling.

flag
Suggest Corrections
thumbs-up
4
Join BYJU'S Learning Program
similar_icon
Related Videos
thumbnail
lock
Five Kingdom Classification
BIOLOGY
Watch in App
Join BYJU'S Learning Program
CrossIcon