biology

Plasmodium gallinaceum

Plasmodium gallinaceum is a biology topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Plasmodium gallinaceum rather than just read about it. In short: Plasmodium gallinaceum is a species of the genus Plasmodium (subgenus Haemamoeba) that causes malaria in poultry. Description This species was described from samples in 1935 by Alexandre Joseph Emile Brumpt, a French professor of parasitology.

Key takeaways

Plasmodium gallinaceum belongs to biology; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Plasmodium gallinaceum to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Plasmodium gallinaceum from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Plasmodium gallinaceum is a species of the genus Plasmodium (subgenus Haemamoeba) that causes malaria in poultry.

Description This species was described from samples in 1935 by Alexandre Joseph Emile Brumpt, a French professor of parasitology. The following year, Brumpt isolated viable material during a trip to Ceylon (now Sri Lanka).

Stages Oocysts must develop inside the vector host. They are not transmissible – if they enter an avian host they will not develop. Sporozoites are the transmission stage. If they enter an avian host they may infect.

Vectors Aedes aegypti is a vector. P. gallinaceum manipulates A. aegypti to increase its own chances of success. Koella et al., 2002 finds that oocysts in the gut increase the volume of each blood meal. This lowers the chances of disgorgement of the parasites into the final host – chicken (Gallus gallus domesticus) – which is important because oocysts can't infect. This prolongs the average duration of oocyst residence in the vector, increasing their chance of successfully maturing to the transmission stage. On the other hand sporozoites do the opposite: They decrease the volume of meals, increasing the number of meals taken, shortening the time they must continue to be in the vector, and increasing their chance of being successfully disgorged into a final host. Because this is the transmittable (infectious) stage that is desirable. This appears to generalize to P. gallinaceum and any combination of mosquito and avian.

Virulence factors Circumsporozoite protein (CSP) is required for host invasion. Warburg et al., 1992 provides a monoclonal antibody against CSP and demonstrates efficacy. The complete inhibition of sporozoite colonization of Aedes aegypti salivary glands they achieved could be due to the antibody itself blocking contact between the sporozoites and the gland surface, however the antibody's binding is inhibited by a particular CSP motif, suggesting antibody efficacy is due to its anti-CSP effect. This 15-amino acid motif is one found by the original Dame et al., 1984 discovery of CSP which contains the 5-length CSP Region I.

Pathology Infection produces severe changes in blood plasma composition. Williams 2005 finds large changes in plasma proteins at 8 days post infection. There is a reduction in albumin, α2-globulin, and creatinine. Meanwhile, there is an increase in γ1-globulin, γ2-globulin, total plasma protein, and total plasma enzyme. (The enzyme increase is due to an increase in aspartate aminotransferase, glutamate dehydrogenase, and γ-glutamyltransferase.)

References

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Plasmodium gallinaceum

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Plasmodium gallinaceum claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In biology, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Plasmodium gallinaceum before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Plasmodium gallinaceum ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Plasmodium gallinaceum

In research: Plasmodium gallinaceum appears in biology research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Plasmodium gallinaceum in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Plasmodium gallinaceum is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Apicomplexa species, Parasites of birds, Plasmodium, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Plasmodium gallinaceum outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Plasmodium gallinaceum in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Plasmodium gallinaceum means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Plasmodium gallinaceum out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Plasmodium gallinaceum in simple terms?

Plasmodium gallinaceum is a species of the genus Plasmodium (subgenus Haemamoeba) that causes malaria in poultry. Description This species was described from samples in 1935 by Alexandre Joseph Emile Brumpt, a French professor of parasitology.

Why does Plasmodium gallinaceum matter?

Because it connects several biology ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Plasmodium gallinaceum?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Plasmodium gallinaceum.