Fig 7.

Sexual conversion and early gametocyte development is not affected by disruption or tagging of MSPDBL2. (A) Gametocyte conversion rates of MSPDBL2-TAG and MSPDBL2 DEL lines compared to the parental 3D7/iGP line. Six experimental replicates were performed on each line in the presence and absence of 1 µM Shield-1 reagent to stabilize the overexpression of GDV1 (using the same protocol as described for assays in Fig. 1). Cultures of the engineered lines other than the parental 3D7/iGP were treated with G418 for a week prior to assay, ensuring that most schizonts express the engineered MSPDBL2 (as shown in Fig. 6), and G418 was not included in the assay as engineered expression of MSPDBL2 remains elevated for at least three cycles after removal (Table S9). All individual counts and assay values for all replicate assays are given in Table S10.