Question
Question: What is the taxonomic classification for malaria?...
What is the taxonomic classification for malaria?
Solution
Linnaeus had done his binomial nomenclature of plants and animal species based on the classification already done by Bauhin. This type of classification system helps in giving the scientific name to the individual that includes the genus and the species of plants and animals.
Complete answer
The genus name of the malaria is known as Plasmodium having four species, which belong to the Plasmodiidae family. The members of the genus Plasmodium are the obligate parasites that are found in the body of their hosts mainly vertebrates and insects. They are the eukaryotes that are unicellular. They enter the bloodstream of the host body and live there as a parasite and infects their red blood cells.
The taxonomic classification for malaria are as follows:
Kingdom - Protista
Subkingdom - Protozoa
Phylum - Apicomplexa
Class - Sporozoasida
Order - Eucoccidiorida
Family - Plasmodiidae
Genus - Plasmodium
Species - falciparum , malariae , ovale , vivax
The characteristic features of the family Plasmodiidae are similar in almost all their members. The four members of this family are known to cause malaria. The deadliest out of the four species is the Plasmodium falciparum.
Linnaeus was the first to introduce the concept of species. The word species was derived from the Greek word and was said to be taken from the bible. Around 8-8.7 million species are known to date. However, out of these only 18-20% of the species were described till now.
On the basis of common characteristic features, all the living organisms are classified into different hierarchical levels. As the number of taxonomic levels lowers the number of common characteristics becomes higher while in the case of the higher taxonomic levels the common characteristics will decrease.
Note:
The parasites which cause malaria to develop in both human and female Anopheles mosquitoes. The infection by the parasites presents thousands of antigens to the human immune system depending on the size and the genetic complexity of the parasites. The biological and environmental factors are both responsible for the cause of malaria in individuals.