Economic importance of Entamoeba histolytica in detail
Answers
ECONOMICAL IMPORTANCE :
1.Entamoeba are found in the intestines of animals they infect.
2.They are internal parasites or commensals of animals.
3.Entamoeba histolytica causes amoebiasis in humans.
Answer: Protozoa exert far more influence in worldly affairs than is generally thought. They are harmful as well as beneficial, but the harmful species are relatively smaller in number as compared with the beneficial species.
Explanation:
There are following benefits:
1. Helpful in sanitation: There are some putrefying bacteria found in polluted water, living on various waste, organic substances which they decompose. Numerous holozoic protozoa however feed on such bacteria, thus helping indirectly purification of water. Thus protozoa play an important part in the sanitary betterment and improvement of the modern civilized world in keeping water safe for drinking purpose.
2. Planktonic protozoa as food: The pelagic Foraminifera and Radiolaria, after death, sink to the great oceanic depths and form, along with more substantial debris and the fundamental food supply in that plantless world. Protozoa floating in the plankton of the sea, forms one of the first links in the numerous and complicated food chains that exist in the oceans of the world.
3. Commensal and symbiotic protozoa: Two animals of different species are often found living together in constant association. Three categories are: Commensalism, Symbiosis and Parasitsm.
Various cilliates and Suctoria live as ectocommensals on frogs, fishes, molluscs and arthropods etc., the bodies of which simply serve as substratum. WHile certain cilliates such as Balantidium, flagellates such as Trichomonas and Giardia, and Rhizopods such as Entamoeba, live as endocommensals within the alimentary canal of man, frogs, cockroaches and others. Some flagellates such as Trichonympha, an intestinal flagellate, live symbiotically with termite and woodroaches. This flagellate is very vital for the existence of the host, because they digest cellulose and convert it into soluble glycogen for their hosts as well as for themselves.
4. Oceanic Ooze and fossil protozoa: The tiny skeletons of dead Foraminifera, Radiolaria and Heliozoa sink to the sea bottom, forming the soft mud or oceanic ooze. These tiny skeletons are made up of silica and calcium carbonate. Over countless millions of years these skeletons, deposited on the floor of the ocean, became solid and fossilized and converted into sedimentary rocks strata found all over the world. having various commercial uses such as, filtering agents, abrasives, chalk, building stones etc. The limestone beds of Paris and North America are composed of the fossil Foraminifera.
5. Protozoa in study: They are studied in the laboratories for the comprehension and application of the biological principles. Due to their minute size and quick reproduction they are studied by Geneticists for Heredity and variations. The knowledge of fossilized protozoa is essential for the students of Geology and Paleontology.