BOTANY

Detailed explanation-1: -The causative agents of malaria are unicellular protozoan parasites belonging to the genus Plasmodium. These parasites infect not only humans but also other vertebrates, from reptiles and birds to mammals.

Detailed explanation-2: -The causative agent of malaria is a parasite called Plasmodium, which is a protist. Protists are single-celled eukaryotes.

Detailed explanation-3: -When an infected mosquito bites a person to take a blood meal, mature protists, present in the mosquito’s saliva, get into that person’s bloodstream. They travel in the bloodstream to the liver, enter the liver cells and divide to produce many immature forms.

Detailed explanation-4: -Plasmodium is a unicellular eukaryote that belongs to the phylum Apicomplexa, formerly known as Sporozoa, probably the largest taxon of protists (Morrison, 2009).