Figure 2.

The differentiation of Leishmania major from the procyclic form to the infective metacyclic form reveals global changes in the parasite's gene expression program. RNA-seq was carried out on L. major procyclic and metacyclic promastigotes. DE analysis was done using limma after voom transformation, taking experimental batch into account as part of the limma statistical model. The MA plot shows the relationship between mean expression (log2 counts per million with an offset of 0.5) and fold change. Each point represents one gene. Points colored in red represent 3138 genes expressed at significantly different levels between procyclic and metacyclic promastigotes at an adjusted P-value of <0.05, with genes upregulated in the metacyclic stage relative to the procyclic stage exhibiting positive fold changes.