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What are pathogens?

Short Answer

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In microbiology, the term pathogens refer to the living organisms (microbes) that act as infective agents for their host to develop sickness in them.

Step by step solution

01

Disease

Pathology defines disease as a specific pathological condition that occurs when the normal harmony of living cells within the body gets infected by germs.

Examples of disease-causing agents are prions (small proteinaceous infectious agents), helminths (large macroparasites or parasitic worms), bacteria (single-celled or prokaryotic microorganisms), viruses (microscopic infectious pathogens), and fungi (parasitic microorganism).

The different kinds of diseases that pathogens cause are measles, common cold, flu, typhoid, chickenpox, genital herpes, AIDS, influenza, powdery mildew, viral gastroenteritis, scrapie, and chronic wasting disease.

02

Microbiology

The field of biological science in which very small and parasitic living things like bacteria, protists, viroids, and fungi are being studied using various microscopes is called microbiology.

The different microbiological branches are bacteriology, virology, parasitology, immunology, and phycology. The several microbiological applications are biodegradation, food production, bioremediation, biotechnology, and genetic engineering.

03

Definition of pathogens

The microorganisms like bacteria and viruses that invade and directly attack the host cells and cause disease are called pathogens.

The several properties associated with pathogenic agents or microorganisms are unicellular organisms, prokaryotic or eukaryotic, toxin production, hijack nutrients, colonize in the host cell, and parasites.

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Most popular questions from this chapter

According to the principle of competitive exclusion, what outcome is expected when two species with identical niches compete for a resource? Why?

Explain why adaptations of particular organisms to interspecific competition may not necessarily represent instances of character displacement. What would a researcher have to demonstrate about two competing species to make a convincing case for character displacement?

An ecologist studying desert plants performed the following experiment. She staked out two identical plots, containing sagebrush plants and small annual wildflowers. She found the same five wildflower species in roughly equal numbers on both plots. She then enclosed one plot with a fence to keep out kangaroo rats, the most common grain-eaters of the area. After two years, four of the wildflower species were no longer present in the fenced plot, but one species had become much more abundant. The control plot had not changed in species diversity. Using the principles of community ecology, propose a hypothesis to explain her results. What additional evidence would support your hypothesis?

The principle of competitive exclusion states that

(A) two species cannot coexist in the same habitat.

(B) competition between two species always causes extinction or emigration of one species.

(C) two species that have exactly the same niche cannot coexist in a community.

(D) two species will stop reproducing until one species leaves the habitat.

Based on the intermediate disturbance hypothesis, a community’s species diversity is increased by

(A) frequent massive disturbance.

(B) stable conditions with no disturbance.

(C) moderate levels of disturbance.

(D) human intervention to eliminate disturbance.

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