protists and fungi

• Fungi


  Eukaryotic organisms, can be unicellular or multicellular
• Fungi

  • Yeast (unicellular)
  • Mushrooms (multicellular)
• Fungi


  • Have long thread-like structures called hyphae which come out of the main body and spread through the soil
  • Hyphae can spread over plants or even penetrate human skin and cause disease
  • Hyphae can produce spores which spread easily and grow into new fungi
• Fungal disease

  • Rose black spot
• Rose black spot


  • Causes purple or black spots to form on the leaves of plants, especially roses
  • As the fungus does more damage, the leaves can start to turn yellow and drop off
• Treating rose black spot

  1. Chop off all infected leaves and destroy them

  2. Spray the plant with fungicides which kill the fungus
• Protists


  • Eukaryotic organisms, can be single-celled or multi-celled
  • Majority are single-celled or unicellular
  • Some are classified as parasites, living on or inside other organisms and surviving at the other organism's expense
• Vectors

  Other organisms, like insects, that transport protists between different host organisms
• Vectors don't get the disease themselves
• Malaria


  • Caused by a parasitic protist
  • Needs a host such as a human or other animal to survive
  • Transmitted between hosts by mosquitoes
• How malaria spreads

  1. Mosquito feeds on infected animal and sucks up malaria parasites

  2. Mosquito then feeds on healthy person, transferring the parasites
• Malaria symptoms


  Recurrent episodes of severe fever and headaches, can be fatal
• Preventing diseases spread by vectors

  1. Reduce number of vectors (e.g. destroy mosquito breeding sites, use insecticides)

  2. Stop vectors from feeding on humans (e.g. use mosquito nets, repellents)