(i) Name two hosts in the life cycle of Plasmodium. In which one does fertilisation of Plasmodium occur?

(ii) Name the disease caused by this parasite and how is it transmitted?

(i): The hosts in the life-cycle of plasmodium is Human body and Anopheles mosquito.

The fertilisation of plasmodium takes place in insect host.

When the female Anopheles mosquito bites infected human, the parasites enter the mosquito’s body along the human blood it is drinking.It is inside the mosquito’s body that the actual development and maturing of the parasites happen.The parasites provided in the human body reach the intestine of the mosquito where the male amp female cells fertilise each other to lead to the formation of a sporozoite.On maturing, the sporozoite breaks out the mosquito’s intestine and migrate to the salivary glands.

(ii): Malaria is the disease caused by Plamodium. Below are the steps how tits transmitted:

_• Malaria infection begins when an infected female Anopheles mosquito bites a person, injecting Plamodium parasites , in the form of sporozoites, into the blood stream.

_• The sporozoites pass quickly into the human liver.

_• The sporozoites multiply asexually in the liver cells, over the next 7 to 10 days, causing no symptoms.

_• In an human, the parasites , in the form of merozoites are released from the liver cells in vesicles, passing through the heart and arrive in the lungs, where they settle within lung capillaries.The vesicles then disintegrate, freeing the merozoites to enter the blood phase.

_• In the blood stream, the merozoites invade RBC and mulitiplies again until the cells burst, The they invade more RBC’s. Thus cycle repeats causing fever each time parasites break free and invade blood cells.

_• Some of the infected blood cells leave the cycle of asexual multiplication. Instead of replicating the merozoites in these cells develop into sexual forms of the parasite called Gametocytes., and this circulates in the blood stream.

_• When a mosquito bites an infected human, it ingests the gametocytes, which develop further into mature sex cells called Gametes.

_• The fertilised female gametes develop into actively moving ookinites that burrow through the mosquito’s midgut wall and form oocytes.

_• Inside the oocyte, thousands of active sporozoites develop. The oocyte eventually burst, releasing sporozoites into the body cavity that travel to the mosquito’s salivary glands.

_• The cycle of human infection begins when the mosquito bites another person.