Skip to main content
. 2011 Dec 22;7(12):e1002320. doi: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1002320

Figure 2. Rodent malaria parasites likely deficient in de novo synthesis of thiamine (vitamin B1).

Figure 2

The diagram illustrates catalytic steps of the thiamine biosynthesis pathway in P. falciparum, with 4-amino-5-hydroxymethyl-2-methylpyrimidine and 5-(2-hydroxyethyl)-4-methylthiazole as start products and thiamine phosphate as the end product. The three enzymes predicted to be absent in rodent malaria parasites catalyze subsequent reactions in this pathway, suggesting that rodent malaria parasites are deficient in de novo synthesis of vitamin B1. Gene identifiers correspond to P. falciparum genes (bold) and their P. vivax and P. knowlesi orthologs (below). PFL1920c has a predicted but severely truncated ortholog in P. yoelii (PY04023). Figure based on pathway shown in the Malaria Parasite Metabolic Pathways (MPMP) database [26].