QUESTION

What are Gametocytes?

ANSWER

Gametocytes are the sexually reproductive form of the malaria parasite. They circulate in the blood of the human/mammal host and are picked up by the mosquito when it takes a blood meal.

Inside the mosquito, the gametocytes undergo sexual reproduction in the mosquito midgut, producing oocysts which attach to the midgut wall and produce sporozoites, which are the stage that are infective to humans when the mosquito takes another blood meal (the sporozoites are passed into the blood via the saliva of the mosquito).