Protozoa Case Study

which venomous snake is best known? Yep, you guessed it, the King Cobra (or as scientists call it Ophiophagus Hannah or snake-eater!!). Did you know that King Cobra are the only snake to lay eggs that they guard with all their life . They can also raise ⅓ of there body off the ground. They raise their body of the ground to make themselves look bigger to scare off enemies. The also hold a world record for longest tongue and they are not the most venomous snake in the world? They just eject the most venom into their prey.

Malaria infection is caused by parasitic protozoan plasmodium. Several species of malaria parasites exist but the most fatal known is plasmodium falciparum. It enters the liver and replicates itself by getting into the red blood cell and ripping its way out when fully matured. It was once thought that the US military got close to completely eradicating the vector mosquito through DDT (dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane) and the parasitic plasmodium with vaccines until they discovered that both are capable of mutating and gained the ability to be resistant to any chemicals scientists could produce (Horizon, 2005).

“Although they have no venom, they have other, quite effective means of killing their prey.” (Burmese Python: Not the ideal pet) This quote states the snake had no venom, but still has unique ways of killing their prey.

Antivenom is an antidote for venom that counters a specific venom or venom type. It is made to treat the venom of snakes, arachnids, scorpions, and poisonous amphibians. Also called antivenin, it is effective on the majority of recipients, but only if it is administered within a small window of opportunity before the venom does too much damage to or outright kills the victim. Antivenom’s manufacturing is similar to a vaccination. A vertebrate,

Savarje, P.J. and R.L. Bruggers. 1999. Candidate repellents, oral, and dermal toxicants, and fumigants for brown tree snake control. Pages 417-422 in Rodda, G.H., Y. Sawai, D. Chizar, and H. Tanaka, Eds. Problem snake management: habu and brown tree snake examples, Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1007&context=nwrcrepellants

Often considered India's most dangerous snake. The venom contains highly powerful neurotoxins which cause the muscles to become paralyzed. It has two kinds of neurotoxins (postsynaptic and presynaptic) that usually affect the nerve endings located close to the synaptic cleft of the brain.

The scientists believe that the venom of the Brazilian wasps could be used in the fight against cancer. The BBC reported that according to the lab tests, toxin kills cancer cells while healthy cells remain intact.

These have rather potent venom used for defense and the hunt. Defense mechanisms of the rattlesnakes have well camouflaged bodies used to evade predators

The Lycosidae uses its chelicerae to hold its prey before using its venomous fangs into paralysing it. (Nicholas, 2011) Similarly, snakes inject venom quickly into its prey and waits for it to immobilise before digesting it, this adaptation prevents preys from escaping and increases its chance of survival.

Malaria is a disease that affects nearly 600 million people and causes more than a million deaths a year, the most coming from children under five. This disease is regularly found in more than 100 countries around the world and affects 40% of the world’s population. It is most commonly transmitted by an infected Anopheles mosquito. The most deadly form of malaria is known as Plasmodium falciparum because almost all deaths from malaria are caused by this specific one. Some of the symptoms that are affiliated with this strand of malaria are the destruction of red blood cells along with complications with the kidneys, lungs, and brain. In more serious cases, it can cause permanent neurological effects and even death. As the Nobel Assembly said at the announcement of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, “Diseases caused by parasites have plagued humankind for a millennium and constitute a major global health problem. In particular, parasitic diseases affect the world’s poorest populations and represent a huge barrier to improving human health and wellbeing”. Youyou Tu, one of the winners of the prize, discovered Artemisinin, “a drug that has significantly reduced the mortality rates for patients suffering from malaria by killing the malaria parasites an early stage of their development.”

The gartner snakes are able to avoid the toxic effects of the newts TTX, because they have a mutation that allows it to manipulate its sodium channels. Which is the perfect defense for something like the newts TTX, because the TTX targets the sodium channels, so the gartner snake is able to resist the tetrodotoxin from affecting it.

This “cocktail” has coevolved to target the snake’s prey of choice (Margres etc., 165). Over time, natural selection typically causes these venoms to become slightly different among species in different populations. This occurs because a prey animal with a gene that resists a snake’s venom would be favored by natural selection, which would prompt an evolutionary response from the snake to make alterations to its venom to combat this resistance (Aiyar, Raeka). This results in distinct predator-prey co-adaptations, which leads to great diversity among regions and the concentration of venom proteins (Margres etc., 167). This is evident in populations of the Eastern diamondback. “For example, two venom components, including one known to cause paralysis in prey, are found at high levels in the Northernmost populations, and were completely absent in the snakes from Caladesi Island, near Tampa” (Aiyar, Raeka). However, an exception to this pattern has been

Rattlesnakes are predators that live in a wide array of habitats , hunting small animals such as birds and rodents. Rattlesnakes have a rattler on the end of their tail to warn other predators that it is dangerous. A rattlesnake’s venom is very lethal to small children and those with weak immune systems. Although today we have many effective ways of treating snake bites, in the 1800s it was very difficult to treat a bite from a rattlesnake. They had a few ways of trying to remove the poison from the wound.

Although the venom for humans is very seldom a fatal wound, it will still deliver a painful than hell wound even though it’s dead, which sucks. The venom is there to help immobilize prey and kill it so that the organism can feast upon the meal after all is said and done. Then the tentacles bring the meal to the little bubble like head for the organism that make up the Man of War to feast upon.

There are four species in the Plasmodium Genus that affect humans: P. falciparum, P. vivax, P. ovale, and P. malariae. What people did not know then, was how the protozoan got from