Plasmodium malariae infection boosts Plasmodium falciparum gametocyte production

Abstract

We analyzed records of malaria therapy patients sequentially or simultaneously inoculated with Plasmodium falciparum and Plasmodium malariae. Gametocyte production was enhanced in P. falciparum by prior or concurrent P. malariae infection but diminished or unaffected in P. malariae by P. falciparum. Conversely, asexual-form production was diminished in P. malariae but unaffected in P. falciparum.

Figure 1

Plots comparing single-species P. falciparum (F, left panels) or P. malariae (M) infections with those that followed or accompanied cross-species infections, in terms of mean daily asexual-form (top panels) and gametocyte densities.