sporozoa

spo·ro·zoa .spōr-ə-'zō-ə, .spȯr- n pl

1) cap a large class of strictly parasitic protozoans that pass through a complicated life cycle usu. involving alternation of a sexual with an asexual generation, that often require two or more dissimilar hosts to complete their life cycle, that are typically immobile and usu. intracellular parasites, and that include many serious pathogens (as the malaria parasites, coccidia, and babesias

2) protozoans of the class Sporozoa

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n.

a group of parasitic protozoans that includes Plasmodium, the malaria parasite. Most sporozoans do not have cilia or flagella. Sporozoan life cycles are complex and usually involve both sexual and asexual stages. Some sporozoans are parasites of invertebrates, and the parasites are passed to new hosts by means of spores. Sporozoans that parasitize vertebrates are transmitted from host to host by invertebrates, which act as intermediate hosts. For example, the mosquito Anopheles is the intermediate host of Plasmodium.

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Spo·ro·zoa (spor″o-zoґə) [sporo- + Gr. zōon animal] 1. Sporozoea. 2. in some former systems of classification, a subphylum and in others a class of protozoa, the members of which have been assigned to four phyla: Apicomplexa, Acetospora, Microspora, and Myxozoa. The organisms in the last three phyla form spores; many of the Apicomplexa do not. 3. Apicomplexa.