Prokaryotes And Protists Essay

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Both prokaryotes and protists have negative and positive impacts on humans. Prokaryotes and protists are both used in a variety of ways by humans today. They can affect humans in the way of disease, which can be deadly, but also help humans with environmental issues too. Also, both provide food sources for humans which are beneficial.
Most prokaryotes are bacteria, which can cause many human diseases. In fact, bacteria cause about one half of human diseases (Reece et. al, 2011 p583). Some examples of prokaryotes that cause diseases are, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, which causes tuberculosis mainly in adults in their mid-life, but is not limited and can affect all age groups. This type of bacterial infection is normally treated with more than one antibiotic because bacteria have a high resistance to antibiotics since they have very quick generation …show more content…

Many protists have a lot of environmental benefits that help humans and our planet. For example, diatoms are widespread, and there is an abundance of them because they have quick generation times. Diatoms go through their rapid growth during blooms. Because of these blooms there are a lot of dead diatoms at the bottom of oceans and they hold carbon dioxide within their bodies, which helps to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. This could eventually help towards the effects of global warming (Reece et, al. 2011 p596). Besides the environmental factors Humans may actually eat protist without even knowing that they are. The protists Porphyra, is a red alga that is used in sushi. It’s the crispy wrap part around the outside of the sushi roll, and can be used in other foods as well. Lastly, humans also use a type of Brown Algae, called Laminaria, which they put in soup. Laminaria can also be used as a thickener for food like in salad dressing or pudding (Reece et, al. 2011

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