Quote: "Parasitism is a close relationship between species, where one organism, the parasite, lives on or inside another organism, the host, causing it some harm, and is adapted structurally to this way of life."
The stages of a parasite's life cycle, including transmission, infection, adaptation, and reproduction. Covers direct and indirect life cycles of various parasites.
Parasitism: The relationship between a parasite and its host.
Host-parasite interactions: The details of parasite infection and the communication between the host and the parasite.
Types of parasites: The different kinds of parasites and their classification.
Transmission: How parasites are transferred from host to host, including the role of vectors.
Life cycles: The different stages that parasites go through, such as custodial, pupae, nymphs, and adults.
Ecological aspects: The ways in which parasites influence the environment they live in, and how environmental factors shape their evolution.
Epidemiology: How infection spreads through populations of humans or animals.
Immunology: The nature of the immune system's response to parasites and the human body's defense mechanisms.
Morphology: The study of the parasites' structure.
Taxonomy and systematics: The classification of parasites and the relationships among them.
Virulence and pathogenicity: The severity of infection and the degree to which parasites can harm their host.
Zoonotic parasites: Parasites that can be transmitted between animals and humans.
Detection and diagnosis: Methods used to identify and detect parasitic infections.
Treatment and prevention: Strategies used to control or eliminate parasitic infections.
Molecular biology: The use of molecular techniques to study parasitic life cycles.
Parasite evolution: The historical and ongoing evolution of parasitic life cycles.
Protozoan parasites: Single-celled parasitic organisms.
Helminth parasites: Parasitic worms, including nematodes, trematodes, and cestodes.
Arthropod parasites: Parasitic insects and mites.
Coccidian parasites: Intracellular parasites that infect the gastrointestinal tract of humans and animals.
Toxoplasma: A protozoan parasite that is responsible for causing toxoplasmosis in humans and animals.
Leishmania: A protozoan parasite that causes leishmaniasis in humans and animals.
Malaria: A protozoan parasite that is transmitted by mosquitoes and causes fever, chills, and flu-like symptoms.
Babesia: A parasite that infects red blood cells and causes babesiosis, which is a malaria-like illness.
Schistosomiasis: A parasitic infection caused by specific trematode flatworms.
Trichomoniasis: A sexually transmitted infection caused by a protozoan parasite, leading to vaginitis.
Giardiasis: A parasitic infection caused by the protozoan parasite Giardia intestinalis, leading to diarrhea.
Flea-borne pestis: A parasitic infection caused by fleas, most commonly affecting rats and transmitted to humans.
Taeniasis: A parasitic disease introduced by tapeworms commonly from infected pork.
Filariasis: A parasitical worm feeding on bodily fluids leading to swelling in limbs and other body areas.
Direct life cycle: In this type of life cycle, the parasite completes its life cycle in a single host without the involvement of any intermediate host.
Indirect life cycle: In this type of life cycle, the parasite requires an intermediate host to complete its life cycle.
Monoxenous life cycle: In this type of life cycle, the parasite has only one host in its entire life cycle.
Heteroxenous life cycle: In this type of life cycle, the parasite has more than one host in its life cycle.
Simple life cycle: In this type of life cycle, the parasite exists in only one form throughout its entire life cycle.
Complex life cycle: In this type of life cycle, the parasite exists in multiple forms throughout its life cycle.
Obligatory life cycle: In this type of life cycle, the parasite must go through all the stages of the life cycle to complete its development.
Facultative life cycle: In this type of life cycle, the parasite can skip developmental stages depending on environmental factors.
Direct development: In this type of life cycle, the parasite develops directly in the host's body.
Indirect development: In this type of life cycle, the parasite develops outside the host's body in an intermediate host or environment.
Cyclopropagative life cycle: In this type of life cycle, the parasite undergoes asexual reproduction in the definitive host and sexual reproduction in the intermediate host.
Metacyclic life cycle: In this type of life cycle, the infective stage of the parasite develops within the intermediate host.
Transovarial transmission: In this type of life cycle, the parasite is transmitted from the female host to its offspring through eggs.
Transstadial transmission: In this type of life cycle, the parasite is transmitted from one life stage to another in the same host.
Vector-borne transmission: In this type of life cycle, the parasite is transmitted by an arthropod vector, such as a mosquito or tick.
Fecal-oral transmission: In this type of life cycle, the parasite is transmitted through the fecal matter of an infected host.
Venereal transmission: In this type of life cycle, the parasite is transmitted sexually from one host to another.
Zoonotic transmission: In this type of life cycle, the parasite is transmitted from animals to humans.
Quote: "The entomologist E.O. Wilson characterised parasites as 'predators that eat prey in units of less than one'."
Quote: "Parasites include single-celled protozoans such as the agents of malaria, sleeping sickness, and amoebic dysentery; animals such as hookworms, lice, mosquitoes, and vampire bats; fungi such as honey fungus and the agents of ringworm; and plants such as mistletoe, dodder, and the broomrapes."
Quote: "There are six major parasitic strategies of exploitation of animal hosts, namely parasitic castration, directly transmitted parasitism (by contact), trophically-transmitted parasitism (by being eaten), vector-transmitted parasitism, parasitoidism, and micropredation."
Quote: "An endoparasite lives inside the host's body; an ectoparasite lives outside, on the host's surface."
Quote: "Parasites, with the exception of parasitoids, are typically much smaller than their hosts, do not kill them, and often live in or on their hosts for an extended period."
Quote: "Classic examples include interactions between vertebrate hosts and tapeworms, flukes, the malaria-causing Plasmodium species, and fleas."
Quote: "Parasites reduce host fitness by general or specialised pathology, from parasitic castration to modification of host behaviour."
Quote: "Parasites increase their own fitness by exploiting hosts for resources necessary for their survival, in particular by feeding on them and by using intermediate (secondary) hosts to assist in their transmission from one definitive (primary) host to another."
Quote: "Although parasitism is often unambiguous, it is part of a spectrum of interactions between species, grading via parasitoidism into predation, through evolution into mutualism, and in some fungi, shading into being saprophytic."
Quote: "People have known about parasites such as roundworms and tapeworms since ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome."
Quote: "Antonie van Leeuwenhoek observed Giardia lamblia in his microscope in 1681."
Quote: "Francesco Redi described internal and external parasites including sheep liver fluke and ticks."
Quote: "Modern parasitology developed in the 19th century."
Quote: "In human culture, parasitism has negative connotations."
Quote: "These were exploited to satirical effect in Jonathan Swift's 1733 poem 'On Poetry: A Rhapsody', comparing poets to hyperparasitical 'vermin'."
Quote: "Bram Stoker's 1897 Gothic horror novel Dracula and its many later adaptations featured a blood-drinking parasite."
Quote: "Ridley Scott's 1979 film Alien was one of many works of science fiction to feature a parasitic alien species." Note: The remaining two study questions could not be answered with quotes directly from the paragraph.