Malaria parasites can optimize transmission investment by sensing two within-host cues.

ABSTRACT: The timing of investment into reproduction is a key determinant of lifetime reproductive success (fitness). Many organisms exhibit plastic, i.e., environmentally-responsive, investment strategies, raising the questions of what environmental cues trigger responses and why organisms have evolved to respond to those particular cues. For malaria parasites (Plasmodium spp.), investment into the production of specialized transmission stages (versus stages that replicate asexually within the host) is synonymous with reproductive investment and also plastic, responding to host- and parasite-derived factors. Previous theory has identified optimal plastic transmission investment strategies for the rodent malaria parasite, Plasmodium chabaudi, as a function of the time since infection, implicitly ass

SUBMITTER: Wang A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12551962 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature