Plasmodium pessoai is a parasite of the genus Plasmodium

Plasmodium

Plasmodium is a genus of parasitic protists. Infection by these organisms is known as malaria. The genus Plasmodium was described in 1885 by Ettore Marchiafava and Angelo Celli. Currently over 200 species of this genus are recognized and new species continue to be described.Of the over 200 known...

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Like all Plasmodium species P. pessoai has both vertebrate

Vertebrate

Vertebrates are animals that are members of the subphylum Vertebrata . Vertebrates are the largest group of chordates, with currently about 58,000 species described. Vertebrates include the jawless fishes, bony fishes, sharks and rays, amphibians, reptiles, mammals, and birds...

 and insect

Insect

Insects are a class of living creatures within the arthropods that have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body , three pairs of jointed legs, compound eyes, and two antennae...

 hosts. The vertebrate hosts for this parasite are reptile

Reptile

Reptiles are members of a class of air-breathing, ectothermic vertebrates which are characterized by laying shelled eggs , and having skin covered in scales and/or scutes. They are tetrapods, either having four limbs or being descended from four-limbed ancestors...

s.

Description

The parasite was first described by Ayala et al. in 1978. The species is named after Dr Samuel B Pessoa - a parasitologist at the Instituto Butantan

Instituto Butantan

Instituto Butantan is a Brazilian biomedical research center affiliated to the São Paulo State Secretary of Health. It is located near the campus of the University of São Paulo, in the city of the same name.-History:...

, São Paulo

São Paulo

São Paulo is the largest city in Brazil, the largest city in the southern hemisphere and South America, and the world's seventh largest city by population. The metropolis is anchor to the São Paulo metropolitan area, ranked as the second-most populous metropolitan area in the Americas and among...

, Brazil

Brazil

Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...

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Morphologically this species appears to be related to Plasmodium aurulentum

Plasmodium aurulentum

Plasmodium anasum is a species of the genus Plasmodium.Like all species in this genus it has both vertebrate and insect hosts. The vertebrate host are reptiles.- Description :This species was described by Telford in 1971....

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Clinical features and host pathology

This species is one of the three known to infect snakes: the other two species infecting snames are Plasmodium wenyoni

Plasmodium wenyoni

Plasmodium wenyoni is a parasite of the genus Plasmodium.Like all Plasmodium species P. wenyoni has both vertebrate and insect hosts. The vertebrate hosts for this parasite are reptiles.- Description :...

and Plasmodium tomodoni

Plasmodium tomodoni

Plasmodium tomodoni is a parasite of the genus Plasmodium.Like all Plasmodium species P. tomodoni has both vertebrate and insect hosts. The vertebrate hosts for this parasite are reptiles.- Clinical features and host pathology :...

.

This species infects the rat snake (Spilotes pullatus

Spilotes pullatus

Spilotes pullatus, also known as the Tigre, is a large snake found in southern Central America, northern South America and Trinidad and Tobago. It is a non-venomous colubrid that tends to inhabit forested areas. It is arboreal in habit and feeds on a wide variety of prey, including small mammals,...

) and the bush master (Lachesis muta

Lachesis muta

Lachesis muta is a venomous pitviper species found in South America. Two subspecies are currently recognized, including the nominate subspecies described here.-Description:...

).

The gametocyte

Gametocyte

A gametocyte is a eukaryotic germ cell that divides by mitosis into other gametocytes or by meiosis into gametids during gametogenesis. Male gametocytes are called spermatocytes, and female gametocytes are called oocytes....

s are small and sausage

Sausage

A sausage is a food usually made from ground meat , mixed with salt, herbs, and other spices, although vegetarian sausages are available. The word sausage is derived from Old French saussiche, from the Latin word salsus, meaning salted.Typically, a sausage is formed in a casing traditionally made...

 shaped (10.4 x 4.6 micrometre

Micrometre

A micrometer , is by definition 1×10-6 of a meter .In plain English, it means one-millionth of a meter . Its unit symbol in the International System of Units is μm...

s)

Immature schizonts often contain a digestive vacuole

Vacuole

A vacuole is a membrane-bound organelle which is present in all plant and fungal cells and some protist, animal and bacterial cells. Vacuoles are essentially enclosed compartments which are filled with water containing inorganic and organic molecules including enzymes in solution, though in certain...

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Mature schizonts are spherical or bouquet-shaped and produce 22 - 32 merozoites. They may possess an intensely staining magenta or rose-coloured substance in the matrix of the
surrounding vacuole.