Plasmodium Species Reproduce Sexually In

Question

Plasmodium species reproduce sexually in
A) birds.
B) Aedes mosquitoes.
C) Ixodes ticks.
D) humans.
E) Anopheles mosquitoes.

Accepted Answer

Plasmodium species reproduce sexually in the Anopheles mosquito, which is the primary vector for the transmission of malaria to humans. The female mosquito ingests the male and female gametocytes (sex cells) during a blood meal from an infected human host. The gametocytes then fertilize and form a zygote in the mosquito's midgut, which develops into an oocyst and eventually releases thousands of infectious sporozoites into the mosquito's salivary glands, ready to be transmitted to a new human host during a subsequent blood meal.