Plasmodium Life Cycle

Multiple fission occurs in the life cycle of Plasmodium, the parasite causing malaria, during two stages:

1. Schizogony: In the human liver cells and red blood cells, the parasite undergoes multiple fission to produce numerous merozoites.
2. Sporogony: In the mosquito's stomach, the zygote develops into an oocyst, which undergoes multiple fission to produce thousands of sporozoites.

In both cases, the nucleus divides multiple times before cytoplasmic division, resulting in the formation of many daughter cells from a single parent cell.