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Fig. 5 | Genome Biology

Fig. 5

From: The PfAlba1 RNA-binding protein is an important regulator of translational timing in Plasmodium falciparum blood stages

Fig. 5

PfAlba1 overexpression perturbs the trophozoite stage transcriptome, resulting in the early onset of a schizont-like transcription profile. a Schematic representation of the transcriptomic profiling experiment. 3D7, 3D7+empty vector, or 3D7+PfAlba1-Ty1 parasites were grown in white blood cell (WBC)-free blood to ring (8–10 h post-infection (h p.i.)) or trophozoite (28–30 h p.i.) stages, and RNA harvested and mRNA enriched and analyzed by strand-specific RNA-seq. Differential expression in 3D7+PfAlba1-Ty1 relative to 3D7 and empty vector transfectants was quantified by edgeR [71]. b qRT-PCR analysis of the indicated genes was performed using total RNA isolated from empty vector or PfAlba1-Ty1 transfectants. The left, middle and right panels include genes that were upregulated, unchanged, or downregulated, respectively, according to RNA-seq. The y-axis denotes -ΔΔCt, calculated as in “Materials and methods”. Data represent the means of a minimum of three independent experiments ± standard error (error bars). c Hours post-infection (HPI) estimates for the transcriptomic data were obtained by passing the normalized RNA-seq data through the maximum likelihood algorithm developed by Lemieux et al. [29]. The left panel shows the HPI estimates within 95 % confidence intervals, while the right panel displays the actual likelihoods determined for each sample over the 48 h IDC. d Giemsa-stained blood films showing ring (R), trophozoite (T) or schizont (S) stages of empty vector or PfAlba1-Ty1 transfectants. Insets show zoomed-in views of the indicated infected red blood cells

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