Fig 2. Predicted membrane topology of Pf3D7_0104100, a sporozoite-specific protein that is homologous to the prominin/CD133 protein family.

The level of polymorphisms among P. falciparum strains is indicated for the separate regions using the color scale below the cartoon of the protein as the average number of polymorphisms per nucleotide in the strains in PlasmoDB. PF3D7_0104100 has a high density of polymorphisms within P. falciparum strains that are concentrated in the second extracellular loop. Cysteines that are conserved among the homologs in Plasmodium species are indicated. The cysteines that are conserved also in human homologs are in bold. Note that the conserved cysteines occur in close proximity to each other, suggesting the formation of disulphide bonds.