Expression of multi-copy gene families in the 3D7 laboratory strain during erythrocyte schizogony.

<p>Expression profiles of the multi-copy gene families <i>var</i> (red line, squares), <i>rif-A</i> (dark blue line, triangles), <i>rif-B</i> (light blue, upside-down triangles), <i>stevor</i> (green line, diamonds), and <i>pfmc-2tm</i> (yellow line, dots) in long-term <i>in vitro</i> cultivated strain 3D7 during erythrocyte schizogony. In contrast to the clinical isolates, 3D7 parasites exhibited a slight increase of <i>rif-A</i>, <i>stevor</i> and <i>pfmc-2tm</i> expression during the ring stage, and the main peak of expression of the multi-copy gene families was observed in mid-age trophozoites. Transcription of the <i>var</i> gene family was restricted to ring stage parasites. Expression was normalized to the reference gene <i>fructose-bisphosphate aldolase</i> and is represented by either ΔCt (left chart) or relative expression (RELATEXP, right chart). 3D7 time course experiments were performed twice and two samples were analysed for each time point at least in duplicates. Graphically shown are mean values and standard deviations of all qPCR runs performed for the respective time points Parasite developmental age (hpi) and the corresponding parasitic stage (shown as Giemsa staining) are plotted on the x-axis.