Plasmodium yoelii

Plasmodium yoelii is a parasite of the genus Plasmodium subgenus Vinckeia. As in all Plasmodium species, P. yoelii has both vertebrate and insect hosts. The vertebrate hosts for this parasite are mammals.

Taxonomy 
This species was described in 1968 by Landau, Michel and Adam. Three subspecies are recognised: P. y. killicki, P. y. nigeriensis and P. y. yoelli.

Distribution 
This species occurs in Africa.

Vectors 
The natural vectors of this species are not currently known. One possible is the female Anopheles mosquito which serves as a vector for Plasmodium vivax.

Hosts 
This species infects Thamnomys rutilans.

Notes 
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 it 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.

References

Further reading

External links 

Information about the genome and genes of P. yoelii
www.genedb.org/Homepage/PyoeliiYM

yoelii
Category:Parasites of rodents