Plasmodia

Plasmodia. 1) Plasmodium - the generally accepted designation (with the addition of the definition malarial) for parasitic protozoa, the causative agents of malaria (see), belonging to the genus Plasmodium from the family Plasmodiidae, which includes parasites of red blood cells of vertebrates (warm- and cold-blooded) and belonging to the order Haemosporidia. 2) A multinucleate cell that arises as a result of the sequential division of the nuclei of a single cell (see Giant cells). 3) A stage of development of lower organisms that stand on the boundary between the animal and plant worlds, mycetozoans or myxomycetes (see), representing a large accumulation of plasma containing nuclei; Plasmodia are also formed by the fusion of amoeboid cells.