Biology 2483A Lecture Notes - European Rabbit, Parasitic Plant, Mycobacterium Tuberculosis

• School: Western University
• Department: Biology
• Course: Biology 2483A
• Professor: Mark Moscicki

Document Summary

More than half of the species living on earth are symbionts. Symbionts are organisms that live in or on other organisms. Our own bodies can be a home to many other species (exterior and interior) A parasite consumes the tissues or body fluids of the organism on which it lives (the host). Pathogens are parasites that cause diseases (an abnormal condition affecting the body of an organism). Parasites usually have a higher reproductive rate than their hosts. Parasites typically harm, but don"t immediately kill, the organisms they eat (unlike predators). We can compare one parasite that causes mild symptoms with one that has lethal effects. (fungus that causes athlete"s foot (nuisance), and yersinia pestis, the bacterium that causes the plague (fatal)). Parasites typically feed on only one or a few host individuals over the course of their lives. Parasites vary in size from large species to species too small to be seen with the naked eye.