English: In series A the red blood cell becomes sickled after interaction with the malarial merozoite, which then begins to multiply in the cell (schizont). Due to the heterozygous nature of the cell, and the hemoglobin inside it causing sickling, likely as a result of the lowering of the pH and deoxygenation, the cell can be targeted and eliminated by macrophages before the infection can reproduce, lowering the overall amount of infected cells in comparison to normal red blood cells. In series B the normal red blood cell becomes infected by the merozoite, which multiplies inside the cell, eventually causing hemolysis of the cell, and the offspring go on to infect other cells. [COMMENT: although heterozygous carriers have a survival advantage, there is no evidence that the mechanism relies on sickling of infected cells Robertpedley (eztabaida) 11:19, 25 November 2024 (UTC)]