Pathogens Flashcards
What is the name of organisms which cause communicable diseases?
Pathogens
How can bacteria make you feel ill?
By producing toxins that damage cells and tissues.
What are viruses?
Viruses are very small, smaller than cells and are not cells.
How do viruses reproduce?
They reproduce by living inside your cells and using its organelles to produce many copies of itself.
How do viruses make you feel ill?
The cell bursts after being used to make copies of the virus, releasing all the new viruses.
Are protists eukaryotic or prokaryotic?
Eukaryotic
What are pathogenic protists called?
Parasites
How can parasites cause an organism damage?
By living on or inside them.
How are parasites transferred to the organism?
By a vector which doesn’t get the disease itself (e.g. a mosquito carrying the malaria protist).
What is the body of a multi-cellular fungi made of?
Thread-like structures called hyphae
How can hyphae cause disease?
They grow and penetrate human skin/the surface of plants. They then produce spores, which can be spread to other plants/animals.
