Practical 1: plasmodium Flashcards
What are the four different blood stages of plasmodium?
Ring, trophozoite, schizont, gametocyte
What are the features of ring stage parasites?
small ring-like appearance with small red chromatin dot and clear vacuole
What are the features of the trophozoite form?
Larger than ring stage, brown dots of haemozoin pigment visible
What are the features of schizonts?
Have an appearance like a bunch of grapes and more than one chromatin dot because nuclear division has begun
What are the features of gametocytes?
Dense black granules visible, often exflagellating from the RBC
What induces exflagellation of gametes?
Uptake into mosquito gut so lower temperature and exposure to xanthurenic acid
What happens to the male gametes before exflagellation?
They undergo 3 rounds of DNA replication within 10 minutes to produce 8 microgametes.
What is an exflagellation centre?
The cluster of red blood cells bound by exflagellating gametes.
