Permeabilization of the erythrocyte membrane with streptolysin O allows access to the vacuolar membrane of Plasmodium falciparum and a molecular analysis of membrane topology

Protein sorting in Plasmodium falciparum-infected red blood cells permeabilized with the pore-forming protein streptolysin O

Plasmodium falciparum is an intracellular parasite of human red blood cells (RBCs). Like many other intracellular parasites, P. falciparum resides and develops within a parasitophorous vacuole which is bound by a membrane that separates the host cell cytoplasm from the parasite surface. Some parasite proteins are secreted into the vacuolar space and others are secreted, by an as yet poorly defined pathway, into the RBC cytosol. The transport of proteins from the parasite has been followed mainly using morphological methods. In search of an experimental system that would allow (i) dissection of the individual steps involved in transport from the parasite surface into the RBC cytosol, and (ii…