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closeDefinitive Vector
Posted by GBWhite on 08 Jun 2009 at 20:52 GMT
Biological species differences depend on assortative mating, giving rise to evolutionary contrasts in biology and morphology. Plasmodium sexual reproduction occurs in the definitive vector host, usually mosquito species with affinity for the specific vertebrate host. Human Plasmodium falciparum is transmitted by, and undergoes sporogony in, certain species of anthropophilic Anopheles, which apparently cannot transmit Plasmodium reichenowi of chimpanzees. Hence P.falciparum and P.reichenowi are genetically separate species, with different primate hosts and different vectors (primary hosts). To determine the taxonomic status of the malaria agent described from two chimpanzees in Gabon, investigate its vectors. For it to be reproductively distinct from P.falciparum and P.reichenowi, hence another species of subgenus Laverania, it would have to be reproductively incompatible with them in their vectors. The reported mitochondrial genome divergence should be correlated with biological factors supporting taxonomic reconition.