Figure 7.

Parasites with reduced levels of TbMLP exhibit enhanced susceptibility to superoxide. Expression of TbMLP in bloodstream-form T. brucei was repressed (conditional null cells −tet, RNAi cells +tet) for 48 h and cells were then plated in varying concentrations of paraquat. Plates were incubated for 72 h and growth measured using alamarBlue™. EC₅₀ values were calculated using variable slope sigmoidal curve fit (Graphpad PRISM software) and the significance of the difference between EC₅₀ values (+/−tet for each clone) was calculated using the F-test (P-values indicated). Lanes D: DKO (EC₅₀ −tet 4.33 ± 0.34 μM, +tet 5.62 ± 0.30 μM); lanes R: RNAi line (EC₅₀ −tet 5.14 ± 0.18 μM, +tet 4.72 ± 0.12 μM)