Editing Plasmodium (section)

== History ==
[[Charles Louis Alphonse Laveran]] first described parasites in the blood of malaria patients in 1880.<ref name=CDCHistory>{{cite web|url=https://www.cdc.gov/malaria/about/history/index.html |access-date=31 May 2016 |title=The History of Malaria, an Ancient Disease |publisher=U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention}}</ref> He named the parasite ''Oscillaria malariae''.<ref name=CDCHistory/> In 1885, zoologists [[Ettore Marchiafava]] and [[Angelo Celli]] reexamined the parasite and termed it a member of a new genus, ''Plasmodium'', named for the resemblance to the [[Plasmodium (life cycle)|multinucleate cells]] of [[slime molds]] of the same name.<ref name=McFadden2012>{{cite journal | last1 = McFadden | first1 = G. I. | year = 2012 | title = Plasmodia – don't | journal = Trends Parasitol | volume = 28 | issue = 8 | pages = 306 | doi=10.1016/j.pt.2012.05.006 | pmid = 22738856}}</ref>{{refn|group=notes|The plural of ''Plasmodium'' is not ''Plasmodia''. Instead multiple species of the genus are referred to as "''Plasmodium'' species".<ref name=McFadden2012/>}} The fact that several species may be involved in causing different forms of malaria was first recognized by [[Camillo Golgi]] in 1886.<ref name=CDCHistory/> Soon thereafter, [[Giovanni Batista Grassi]] and [[Raimondo Filetti]] named the parasites causing two different types of human malaria ''[[Plasmodium vivax]]'' and ''[[Plasmodium malariae]]''.<ref name=CDCHistory/> In 1897, [[William H. Welch|William Welch]] identified and named ''[[Plasmodium falciparum]]''. This was followed by the recognition of the other two species of ''Plasmodium'' which infect humans: ''[[Plasmodium ovale]]'' (1922) and ''[[Plasmodium knowlesi]]'' (identified in [[long-tailed macaque]]s in 1931; in humans in 1965).<ref name=CDCHistory/> The contribution of insect hosts to the ''Plasmodium'' life cycle was described in 1897 by [[Ronald Ross]] and in 1899 by Giovanni Batista Grassi, [[Amico Bignami]] and [[Giuseppe Bastianelli]].<ref name=CDCHistory/>

In 1966, [[Cyril Garnham]] proposed separating ''Plasmodium'' into nine subgenera based on host specificity and parasite morphology.<ref name=Martinsen2013/> This included four subgenera that had previously been proposed for bird-infecting ''Plasmodium'' species by A. Corradetti in 1963.<ref name="Corradetti1963">{{cite journal |author1=Corradetti A. |author2=Garnham P.C.C. |author3=Laird M. |title=New classification of the avian malaria parasites |journal=Parassitologia |volume=5 |pages=1–4 |year=1963 }}</ref><ref name=Valkiunas4/> This scheme was expanded upon by Sam R. Telford in 1988 when he reclassified ''Plasmodium'' parasites that infect reptiles, adding five subgenera.<ref name="Telford1988">{{cite journal |author=Telford S |title=A contribution to the systematics of the reptilian malaria parasites, family Plasmodiidae (Apicomplexa: Haemosporina) |journal=Bulletin of the Florida State Museum Biological Sciences |volume=34 |issue=2 |pages=65–96 |year=1988 |url=http://ufdcweb1.uflib.ufl.edu/UF00095820/00001/3 |access-date=2014-03-25 |archive-date=2018-09-26 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180926161500/http://ufdcweb1.uflib.ufl.edu/UF00095820/00001/3 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref name=Martinsen2013/> In 1997, G. Valkiunas reclassified the bird-infecting ''Plasmodium'' species adding a fifth subgenus: ''Bennettinia''.<ref name=Valkiunas4/><ref name="Valkiunas1997">{{cite journal |author=Valkiunas, G. |title=Bird Haemosporidia |journal=Acta Zoologica Lituanica |volume=3–5 |pages=1–607 |year=1997 |issn=1392-1657 }}</ref>