Fig 5. In the absence of PfMyoA or PfELC, merozoites cannot strongly deform or internalise.

A Comparison of event types from PfMyoA-cKO, PfMyoA-comp and PfELC-cKO lines after DMSO and RAP treatment. PfMyoA-cKO parasites show neither deformation nor internalisation after RAP treatment (p<0.0001, significance assessed by Fisher’s exact test comparing pooled failures to Type A events). In contrast, PfMyoA-comp shows only a slight drop in the rate of successful invasion after RAP treatment (p = 0.047). PfELC-cKO parasites also shows a complete loss of successful invasion, but almost half of the events did involve deformation. Significance assessed by chi-square test. B The distribution of deformation scores does not change significantly for PfMyoA-comp events after RAP treatment. The mean deformation score for PfELC-cKO merozoites is greatly reduced by RAP treatment. Significance assessed by chi-square test. C Comparing the duration of each phase of invasion for PfMyoA-comp parasites after DMSO or RAP treatment shows no significant differences. D Examples of RAP-treated PfMyoA-cKO merozoite, showing attachment only, with no further progress (S1 Video), and a PfELC-cKO merozoite undergoing a Type C failure, showing deformation but no internalisation (S2 Video). Time indicated in seconds, scale bar 2 μm. E Schematic based on Fig 4A showing invasion attempts by PfMyoA-cKO merozoites arrest after attachment, while invasion attempts by PfELC-cKO merozoites arrest after deformation, though many arrest before deformation as well.