Figure 1. The majority of Plasmodium berghei liver-stage parasites do not complete development and die in an ordered way. HepG2 cells were infected with transgenic P. berghei parasites constitutively expressing mCherry. (A) Sixty-eight and 72 hpi the number of infected attached cells (arrested) and detached cells (containing fully developed merozoites) were counted. Shown are the means of five independent experiments with the corresponding SDs (standard deviation). (B) merofusosome formation: merogony starts but then merozoites fuse to the enlarging body that exhibits strong vacuolization, a hallmark of autophagy (see also Vid. S2). Scale bar: 10 µm; CLS (confocal line scanning).