Plasmodium yoelii is a parasite of the genus Plasmodium subgenus Vinckeia. As in all Plasmodium species, P. yoelii has both vertebrate and insect hosts. The vertebrate hosts for this parasite are mammals.

Taxonomy

This species was described in 1968 by Landau, Michel and Adam. Three subspecies are recognised:

Strains

Distribution

This species occurs in Africa.

Vectors

The natural vectors of this species are not currently known. One possible is the female Anopheles mosquito which serves as a vector for Plasmodium vivax.

Hosts

This species infects Thamnomys rutilans.

Pathogenesis

P. yoelii impairs immune responses including impairing responses to other pathogens. Fewer granulocytes move out from the bone marrow and in a separate action induces the rodent's own heme oxygenase 1 (HO-1). Although HO-1 induction is a tolerance response by the host to malaria preventing damage caused by the host's own immune response the reduced reactive oxygen species production takes away a weapon vital to fighting some unrelated microbes. Cunnington et al. 2012 find mice tolerating P. yoelii 17XNL do not clear coinfections with other pathogens as easily as they normally would.