What is the difference between protozoa and helminths

Hence, taxonomy is a major difference between protozoa and helminths. The main forms of protozoa are Amoebae, flagellates, ciliates, and Sporozoa while the two main forms of helminths are Platyhelminthes and Nemathelminthes. Also, another difference between protozoa and helminths is their cellular organization; protozoa are unicellular while helminths are multicellular. Furthermore, some protozoa are non-motile and motile protozoa use either flagella or cilia for their locomotion while helminths move through muscular contractions.

Moreover, protozoa reproduce asexually by binary fission, schizogony or endodyogeny and sexually by gametogony while helminths reproduce sexually differentiated. Besides these, digestion is another difference between protozoa and helminths. The digestion of food of protozoa occurs inside the cell while some helminths have a complete alimentary canal and others absorb nutrients from their body wall.

Protozoa are unicellular eukaryotes that are parasitic on plants or animals. They belong to the kingdom Protista. In comparison, helminths are parasitic worms including flatworms, roundworms, and annelids. However, both of them are endoparasites.

Helminths always show higher body organization than protozoa. Therefore, the main difference between protozoa and helminths is the organization of the body.

Isolation and characterization of single protective antigens or subunit vaccines from these two organisms are examined as models for vaccine development.

Finally, developments in exploring gene regulation in protozoans and free and parasitic nematodes are briefly outlined. Science, founded by Thomas A. Edison in and published by AAAS, today ranks as the world's largest circulation general science journal. Published 51 times a year, Science is renowned for its highly cited, peer-reviewed research papers, its special strength in life science disciplines, and its award-winning coverage of breaking science news.

The online edition includes not only the full text of current issues, but also Science archives dating back to Edison's first edition in Usually parasites have complex life cycles, and thus, they re quires more than one host to complete their life cycles. There are three types of hosts available, namely; reservoir host, intermediate host, and definitive host. All the protozoa are unicellular eukaryotic organisms and possess well-organized nuclei.

In addition to nuclei, all of them possess other organelles including Golgi complex, mitochondria, ribosomes, etc. Most of the protozoa are free-living and have various types of vacuoles in their cells. A microscope is necessary to view this parasite. Credit: CDC. Protozoa are microscopic, one-celled organisms that can be free-living or parasitic in nature.

They are able to multiply in humans, which contributes to their survival and also permits serious infections to develop from just a single organism. Protozoa that live in the blood or tissue of humans are transmitted to other humans by an arthropod vector for example, through the bite of a mosquito or sand fly.

The protozoa that are infectious to humans can be classified into four groups based on their mode of movement:. Helminths are large, multicellular organisms that are generally visible to the naked eye in their adult stages. Like protozoa, helminths can be either free-living or parasitic in nature. In their adult form, helminths cannot multiply in humans.