Plasmodium (life cycle)

For the genus of parasitic protozoa, which causes malaria see Plasmodium

A plasmodium is an amoeboid, multinucleate and naked mass of protoplasm having many diploid nuclei and is the result of many nuclear divisions without cytokinesis[1] (coenocyte) and it usually refers to the feeding stage of macroscopic slime molds (i.e. myxomycetes)[2]. It can also refer to the multinucleate developmental stages (i.e merogonial plasmodium and sporogonial plasmodium) of intracellular parasitic cnidosporans (Microsporidia and Myxosporidia).

References

  1. ^ Sharma OP. (1988). Textbook of Fungi. Boston: McGraw Hill Higher Education. pp. 36-39. ISBN 0-07-460329-9. 
  2. ^ Berg, Linda (2008). Introductory Botany: Plants, People, and the Environment (2nd ed.). Belmont CA: Thomson Corporation. p. 398. ISBN 0030754534.