Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 22, 2026

Phenotypic Analysis of Rodent Malaria Parasite Asexual and Sexual Blood Stages and Mosquito Stages
Published on: May 30, 2019
Biology of human malaria plasmodia including Plasmodium knowlesi
Spinello Antinori1, Laura Galimberti, Laura Milazzo
1Department of Clinical Sciences L. Sacco, Section of Infectious Diseases and Immunopathology, University of Milano, Italy.
Abstract:
Malaria is a vector-borne infection caused by unicellular parasite of the genus Plasmodium. Plasmodia are obligate intracellular parasites that are able to infect and replicate within the erythrocytes after a clinically silent replication phase in the liver. Four species (P.falciparum, P.malariae, P.ovale and P.vivax) are traditionally recognized as responsible of natural infection in human beings but the recent upsurge of P.knowlesi malaria in South-East Asia has led clinicians to consider it as the fifth human malaria parasite. Recent studies in wild-living apes in Africa have revealed that P.falciparum, the most deadly form of human malaria, is not only human-host restricted as previously believed and its phylogenetic lineage is much more complex with new species identified in gorilla, bonobo and chimpanzee. Although less impressive, new data on biology of P.malariae, P.ovale and P.vivax are also emerging and will be briefly discussed in this review.
Related Concept Videos
Symbiosis
Diversity of Protists II
Fungal Phylum Microsporidia
Overview of Protists
Diversity of Protists I

