Are multiple gametocyte infections in malarial parasites an adaptation to ensure fertility?
Multiple infections, those by more than one parasite in the same erythrocyte, may be adaptive for the malarial parasite as a means to ensure fertility. Alternatively they may simply be the consequence of a non-adaptive process forcing several parasites to compete for resources in one host cell. Avian hosts infected with Haemoproteus were medicated with primaquine or injected with saline solution and the density of infection and number, maturity and sex of mature multiple infections counted. Multiple infections depend on density of infection, and maturity is attained rarely and usually by gametocytes of the same sex. The role of multiple infections for fertility insurance is not supported by these results.
