Biology · Biological Classification · NEET
Trypanosoma causes sleeping sickness. It is a flagellated protozoan (it moves using a flagellum). NCERT states it directly: parasitic flagellated protozoans cause diseases such as sleeping sickness, example Trypanosoma. Learn this exact line because NEET repeats it.
The NCERT example is Trypanosoma. It is the one name you must remember for this group. If a question asks for a flagellated protozoan, the answer is Trypanosoma.
They move using flagella. A flagellum is a long, thin, whip-like structure that lashes back and forth to push the cell forward. This is different from amoeboid protozoans (pseudopodia) and ciliated protozoans (thousands of cilia).
Trypanosoma is a protozoan, NOT a bacterium. It is a single-celled eukaryote (it has a true nucleus). Bacteria are prokaryotes in Kingdom Monera. Trypanosoma belongs to Kingdom Protista. This is a common trap in NEET.
Trypanosoma belongs to Kingdom Protista. All protozoans are placed under Protista in the NCERT five kingdom system because they are single-celled eukaryotes. So Trypanosoma is a protistan, not an animal and not a monera.
No. NCERT says the members of this group are either free-living or parasitic. Only the parasitic forms, like Trypanosoma, cause diseases such as sleeping sickness. So the group has both free-living members and disease-causing members.
Both have a flagellum, but they are placed in different Protista groups. Euglena is a euglenoid (mixotroph, has chlorophyll, has a pellicle). Trypanosoma is a flagellated protozoan (a heterotroph, always a predator or parasite, no chlorophyll). So flagella alone do not mean flagellated protozoan.
Ciliates differ from all other protozoans in
Chrysophytes, Euglenoids, Dinoflagellates and Slime moulds are included in the kingdom:
Try the real previous-year questions from this chapter — each with the answer and a full solution.
Trypanosoma is unicellular (a single-celled eukaryote). Like all protozoans, it is made of just one cell that carries out all life functions.
NCERT only asks you to know that Trypanosoma is a flagellated protozoan that causes sleeping sickness. For deeper study, it is spread by the bite of the tsetse fly, but for NEET the key fact is Trypanosoma = flagellated protozoan = sleeping sickness.
They are heterotrophs. NCERT says all protozoans are heterotrophs and live as predators or parasites. Trypanosoma lives as a parasite inside its host.
There are four groups: amoeboid, flagellated, ciliated and sporozoans. Flagellated protozoans (Trypanosoma) are the second group. Learn all four with their example and movement organ for NEET.
Biological Classification is a high-yield chapter, and protozoan groups appear almost every year. Examiners love mixing up the movement organ (pseudopodia vs flagella vs cilia) and the example, so knowing Trypanosoma = flagella = sleeping sickness earns easy marks.
