Commitment to gametocytogenesis in Plasmodium falciparum

To achieve transmission, a subpopulation of sexually dividing bloodstream f orms of the human malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum withdraws from the cell cycle to develop into gametocytes - cells specialized for sexual repr oduction and invasion of the mosquito vector. For natural selection to maxi mize transmission to new hosts, a balance must have evolved between asexual replication and sexual differentiation; Here, Mike Dyer and Karen Day cons ider observations an the process of commitment to gametocytogenesis and use this information as the framework for a model that begins to explain the c ontrol of the dynamics between asexual and sexual development.