Skip to content
Vinony

sporozoite

noun

  1. motile and infectious developmental stage of apicomplexan protists
L227308 on Wikidata ↗

Wiktionary

Pronunciation: /spɒɹəˈzəʊʌɪt/

noun

Etymology: From translingual Sporozoa + -ite.

  1. Any of the minute active bodies into which a sporozoan divides just before it infects a new host cell.

    “Ross […] was then able to outline its history within the mosquito: first, as a zygote in the stomach; then as an oocyst in the stomach wall; and finally as a mature sporozoite that reaches first the proboscis and then a human host when the insect bites and squirts its saliva prior to sucking blood.”