Figures
Plasmodium berghei sporozoites isolated from mosquito salivary glands displaying waving behavior
Plasmodium sporozoites are the crescent-shaped and highly motile forms of the malaria parasite transmitted by mosquitos. Sporozoites need to be motile to enter mosquito salivary glands, to find dermal blood vessels and to enter hepatocytes. Before they can migrate, they have to adhere to the substrate. In vitro, sporozoites usually attach to a flat surface with one end first and can wave about with the unattached part of the cell. This image shows waving Plasmodium berghei sporozoites as a false-colored projection of a time-lapse movie (one image every 3 seconds for 5 minutes). Sporozoites waved around the bright spots. Moreau et al.
Image Credit: Catherine Moreau
Citation: (2017) PLoS Pathogens Issue Image | Vol. 13(6) June 2017. PLoS Pathog 13(6): ev13.i06. https://doi.org/10.1371/image.ppat.v13.i06
Published: June 30, 2017
Copyright: © 2017 Moreau. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Plasmodium sporozoites are the crescent-shaped and highly motile forms of the malaria parasite transmitted by mosquitos. Sporozoites need to be motile to enter mosquito salivary glands, to find dermal blood vessels and to enter hepatocytes. Before they can migrate, they have to adhere to the substrate. In vitro, sporozoites usually attach to a flat surface with one end first and can wave about with the unattached part of the cell. This image shows waving Plasmodium berghei sporozoites as a false-colored projection of a time-lapse movie (one image every 3 seconds for 5 minutes). Sporozoites waved around the bright spots. Moreau et al.
Image Credit: Catherine Moreau