Micromacro Science

SC1009: LIVE Plasmodium berghei taken from mosquito midgut showing 3 fully developed ookinetes and 2 unfertilised female gametes. All are genetically modifed to express Green Fluorescence Protein, and photographed using a fluorescence microscope and GFP filter settings. P. berghei belongs to a group of four Plasmodium species that infect murine rodents from Central Africa. These species are P. vinckei, P.chabaudi, P. yoelii and P. berghei. Females are spherical and transform to elongated ookinete stages within 20hours after fertilisation. The bright areas in the centre of the ookinetes are the remains of digested haemazoin pigment granules from when the females were developing inside their host's red blood cells. The ookinetes travel through the gut wall of their mosquito hosts and form cysts on the outside, which then produce the parasite stages that can infect new hosts.