A parasite is an organism that feeds off another without immediately killing the organism it is feeding on. In this relationship, the parasite benefits, but the organism being fed upon, the host, is harmed. The host is usually weakened by the parasite as it siphons resources the host would normally use to maintain itself. Parasites may kill their hosts, but there is usually selection to slow down this process to allow theparasite time to complete its reproductive cycle before it or its offspring are able to spread to another host.
The reproductive cycles of parasites are often very complex, sometimes requiring more than one host species. A tapeworm causes disease in humans when contaminated, undercooked meat such as pork, fish, or beef is consumed (Figure 19.22). The tapeworm can live inside the intestine of the host for several years, benefiting from the host’s food, and it may grow to be over 50 feet long by adding segments. The parasite moves from one host species to a second host species in order to complete its life cycle. Plasmodium falciparum is another parasite: the protists that cause malaria, a significant disease in many parts of the world. Living inside human liver and red blood cells, the organism reproduces asexually in the human host and then sexually in the gut of blood-feeding mosquitoes to complete its life cycle. Thus malaria is spread from human to mosquito and back to human, one of many arthropod-borne infectious diseases of humans.
To learn more about “Symbiosis in the Sea,” watch this webisode (http://openstaxcollege.org/l/ symbiosis) of Jonathan Bird’s Blue World.
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