There were significantly fewer oocysts in mre11 lines, and the vast majority of these oocysts were significantly smaller than WT-GFP oocysts. In none of the mre11 oocysts was there any evidence of sporozoite development, and those of similar size to WT-GFP oocysts had patterns of fragmented GFP expression and reduced Hoechst DNA-staining. Investigation of the sex-cell lineage of this defect revealed that it could be rescued by crossing mre11 parasites with map2 (male-defective) cells, suggesting that the function of MRE11 is inherited through the female.The mre11 oocysts had a fully formed wall but the cytoplasm exhibited evidence of degeneration, with vacuolization and organelle breakdown, while the nuclei showed marked swelling of the nuclear membranes

no sporozoite formation