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An apicomplexan parasite belongs to an evolutionary lineage containing organisms such as Plasmodium and Cryptosporidium. Plastid retention and metabolic requirements vary among lineages and life-cycle stages.

A parasitic disease caused by Plasmodium, usually transmitted by infected mosquitoes. Distinct stages in the vector, liver and blood connect the organism’s life cycle with transmission and clinical illness.^[ref]

Plasmodium is a genus of unicellular eukaryotic parasites that includes the organisms causing malaria. Its members have a cell nucleus and specialized organelles; they are not bacteria. In the malaria life cycle, multiplication in a vertebrate host alternates with development in a mosquito vector. Different stages occupy different host environments.

Many malaria parasites retain an apicoplast, an organelle descended from a plastid. A blood-stage study connected its essential role to production of isoprenoid precursors: replacing the missing metabolic output could bypass organelle loss in that experimental context. ^[ref] The result concerns a defined life stage and does not imply that every organelle function is dispensable throughout the parasite's life cycle.