What Is the Plasmodium Life Cycle?
Plasmodium is a genus of protozoan parasites, many of which are known to cause malaria in humans. Parasites are transmitted between human hosts by female mosquitoes of the genus Anopheles. Plasmodium cannot survive outside of a mosquito or human, so the entire plasmodium life cycle is carried out during the process of transmission and infection. There are several somewhat complex stages in the plasmodium life cycle, though researchers have been able to accurately trace the pathways and mechanisms parasites use to spawn, mature, thrive, and replicate.
Plasmodium is a genus of protozoan parasites, many of which are known to cause malaria in humans. Parasites are transmitted between human hosts by female mosquitoes of the genus Anopheles. Plasmodium cannot survive outside of a mosquito or human, so the entire plasmodium life cycle is carried out during the process of transmission and infection. There are several somewhat complex stages in the plasmodium life cycle, though researchers have been able to accurately trace the pathways and mechanisms parasites use to spawn, mature, thrive, and replicate. The plasmodium life cycle begins when new cells, called sporozoites, are picked up by a mosquito when it bites an infected person. Sporozoites lie dormant in the saliva of the mosquito until it bites another host. Immature parasites travel in the bloodstream of a human to the liver, where they attach to cells called hepatocytes. Over the course of about nine days, sporozoites mature into their juvenile form called merozoites. It is common
