5. What are the major groups of microorganisms?
The major groups of microorganisms are as follows-
(i) Bacteria- unicellular organisms. most common examples of bacteria are Salmonella typhi, Rhizobium, Mycobacterium etc. Typhoid and tuberculosis (TB) are bacterial diseases.
(ii) Fungi- Multicellular organisms which feed on dead and deaying matter. Bread mould is common examples.
(iii) Protozoa- Unicellular organisms wihich are mostly parasitic. Organisms like Amoeba, Plasmodium etc are under this category. Dysentery and malaria are caused by protozoans.
(iv) Virus- Acellular organisms which reproduce only inside the cells of the host organism. These cause diseases like chicken pox and polio.
(v) Algae- They are unicellular or multicellular organism. Spirogyra, Chlamydomonas, Ulva are some of the examples of algae.