Q.Describe the life cycle of Plasmodium vivax in mosquito.
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Start your 14-day free trial to unlock the full solution →The mosquito stage of the Plasmodium vivax life cycle is the sexual phase (sporogonic cycle): gametocytes taken up in a blood meal fuse to form a zygote that develops through an ookinete and oocyst stage into infective sporozoites, which migrate to the mosquito's salivary glands.
1. Uptake of gametocytes: When a female Anopheles mosquito bites an infected human and takes a blood meal, it ingests red blood cells containing Plasmodium vivax gametocytes (the sexual forms — micro- and macrogametocytes) along with asexual stages, but only the gametocytes can develop further in the mosquito.
2. Gamete formation (gametogenesis): In the mosquito's stomach (midgut), the male microgametocyte undergoes exflagellation — its nucleus divides rapidly and thread-like, flagellated microgametes are released. The female macrogametocyte matures into a single macrogamete.
3. Fertilisation: A microgamete fuses with a macrogamete to form a diploid zygote — this is the only diploid stage in the entire Plasmodium life cycle.
4. Ookinete formation: The zygote elongates and becomes a motile, worm-like ookinete, which actively penetrates the epithelial lining of the mosquito's stomach wall.
5. Oocyst and sporogony: On reaching the outer (haemocoelic) side of the stomach wall, the ookinete rounds up and encysts as an oocyst. Inside the oocyst, the nucleus divides repeatedly (sporogony), producing thousands of thread-like, haploid sporozoites.
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