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Plasmodium yoelii is a species of the genus Plasmodium which can infect rodents. Its most notable feature is that it is used in the laboratory to infect mice, as a model of human malaria, particularly with respect to the immune response.
It is advantageous to have a whole-animal model of malaria because often it is difficult to know which factors to study in vitro, particularly in a complex system like the immune system. Moreover, for many experiments it is not ethical or practical to use humans.
One of the special things about this particular model is that is has two strains with vastly different pathogenicity. These are generally referred to as the "lethal" and "non-lethal" strains of the species. Comparison of these two strains can be used to deduce which factors may contribute to more serious malaria infections in humans.
