Life Cycle and Reproduction

The life cycle of malaria

Plasmodium has a complex life cycle that mostly alternates between human and mosquito. The mosquito first injects the human with plasmodium sporozoites in the human with its salivary glands. The sporozoites are motile, and then move to tissue on the liver called hepatocytes. In the liver the sporozoites transform into schizonts can divide into daughter cells called merozoites. Merozoites infect the red blood cell, which turn into trophozoites, which obtain nutrients from the host. Some trophozoites in the blood cells develop merozoites again, while others turn into gametocytes, which mosquitoes can bring with them when mosquitoes bite humans. Inside the mosquito, the gametocytes turn into plasmodium again, and the whole cycle simply repeats over and over again.