Question:medium

In malaria, the sexual cycle is -

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The sexual cycle (sporogony) runs in the mosquito and ends in sporozoites.
Updated On: Jun 24, 2026
  • Sporozoite to gametocytes
  • Gametocytes to sporozoite
  • Occurs in humans
  • Responsible for relapse
Show Solution

The Correct Option is B

Solution and Explanation

Step 1: Plasmodium alternates between an asexual phase in the human (intermediate host) and a sexual phase, called sporogony, inside the female Anopheles mosquito (definitive host). The question focuses on the direction of the sexual phase.

Step 2: Inside the mosquito gut, male and female gametocytes taken up with a blood meal differentiate into gametes. Fertilisation yields a motile ookinete that becomes an oocyst on the stomach wall; the oocyst eventually bursts to liberate sporozoites that migrate to the salivary glands. Therefore the chain runs gametocytes leading to sporozoites.

Step 3: Rejecting the others: going from sporozoite toward gametocyte describes the asexual schizogony within people, the sexual cycle is housed in the insect rather than the human body, and relapses stem from dormant liver hypnozoites, not from sporogony.

Step 4: So the sexual cycle converts gametocytes into sporozoites.

\[\boxed{\text{Gametocytes to sporozoite}}\]
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