PbPL is expressed throughout liver stage development and localizes to the PVM.

<p>A) PbPL mRNA expression profile in blood stages (BS) and in liver stages at 24, 48, 54 and 60 hours post-infection (hpi). Transcripts were detected by RT-PCR, using primers specific for PbPL and <i>P</i>. <i>berghei</i> glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH, PBANKA_132640) as a control. B) Endogenous PbPL localizes to the PVM. An antiserum against His-PbPL_195–312 was raised in a mouse and used in IFA of wild-type (WT) and PbPL-knockout (KO2) liver stage parasites constitutively expressing cytosolic mCherry. Parasites were fixed at 30 and 54 hpi and additionally stained with an antiserum against the PVM marker protein ExpI. C) GFP-tagging of PbPL confirms PVM localization. PbPL was expressed as a GFP-fusion protein in <i>P</i>. <i>berghei</i> liver stage parasites additionally constitutively expressing cytosolic mCherry, which were fixed at 54 hpi and analyzed by IFA. PbPL (green), ExpI (purple), mCherry (red). The merged channels additionally contain DAPI-stained nuclei (blue). Scale bars = 10 μm.