Question

Are protists harmful or helpful?

Answer 1

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.