Abstract
AFTER a mosquito has fed on an animal infected with malaria, the microgametocyte exflagellates in the mosquito gut and fertilizes the macrogamete thereby forming an ookinete. Only a few workers have studied the in vitro cultivation of the mosquito stages of malaria. Ball and Chao1–3 working with the avian malaria Plasmodium relictum were unable to induce ookinete formation in vitro although they were able to induce exflagellation of the gametocyte. They were forced to remove the oocyst from the mosquito gut by microsurgical techniques to obtain development of later oocyst stages. The bacteria and fungi from the mosquito preparations caused some difficulty in these cultures. They speculated that because they could not induce ookinete formation in their cultures, some substance from the mosquito stomach was required for development of the ookinete.
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References
Ball, G. H., and Chao, J., J. Parasitol., 43, 409 (1957).
Chao, J., and Ball, G. H., Amer. J. Trop. Med. Hyg., 13, 181 (1964).
Ball, G. H., J. Parasitol., 50 (1964).
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ALGER, N. In vitro Development of Plasmodium berghei Ookinetes. Nature 218, 774 (1968). https://doi.org/10.1038/218774a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/218774a0
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