Figure 4.

iRBCs expressing a different PfEMP1 variant show different level of reduction in cytoadherence upon conditional depletion of PFE1605w.

A. Preselected iRBCs binding to either recombinant CD36, ICAM‐1 or CSA immobilized on tissue‐treated glass slides at 50 µg ml⁻¹ (CD36, ICAM‐1) or 20 µg ml⁻¹ (CSA) concentrations. Parasites expressing PFE1605w as a C‐terminally tagged DD fusion protein were grown for 96 h in the presence (PFE1605w^ON) or absence (PFE1605w^OFF) of 625 nM Shield‐1. The graphs display overall mean values across triplicate experiments using linear regression with a random effect for experiment. The error bars represent the SDs of the triplicate experiments. An arbitrary threshold (dashed line) for unspecific binding was calculated as the mean level of iRBC binding to 1% w/v BSA plus two SDs. P values were calculated by using a two‐tailed Student's t‐test. The asterisks indicate P ≤ 0.0001. ‘ns’ indicates P ≥ 0.05.

B. Pie charts show the var transcript distribution in the selected lines. qPCR was performed with specific primers for each var gene as previously reported.