Fig. 4.

Formation of superdomains on chr14 in gametocytes. a ICE-normalized contact count heatmap at 10 kb resolution of early gametocyte (left) and late gametocyte (right) chromosome 14 showing the separation of the chromosome into two superdomains. The dashed line indicates the location of the centromere, and the arrowhead indicates the position of PF3D7_1429200. b Smaller region of chromosome 14 centered on the domain boundary that is located inside PF3D7_1430000, a conserved gene with unknown function. c The homolog of pfap2 gene PF3D7_1429200 in P. berghei (PBANKA_1015500; pbap2-o3) has a nuclear localization in female gametocytes and gametes, but is not detected in male gametocytes. The top row shows male and female gametocytes. The bottom row shows a male and female gamete activated by mosquito ingestion, which triggers expression of the female-specific surface protein P28. Male (M) and female (F) parasite are indicated in the brightfield and merged images. Scale bar denotes 10 μm