Juxtamembrane Shedding of Plasmodium falciparum AMA1 Is Sequence Independent and Essential, and Helps Evade Invasion-Inhibitory Antibodies
Figure 8
Mutations that prevent PfSUB2-mediated shedding of PfAMA1 increase sensitivity to invasion-inhibitory anti-PfAMA1 antibodies.
Histogram showing the effects of anti-PfAMA1 antibodies on invasion by transgenic P. falciparum lines harbouring PfAMA1/DIII-HA expression constructs AMA_C, AMA_P1 or AMA_P1-P1′. All assays were performed in the presence of peptide R1 (100 µg ml−1 final concentration) to block the function of endogenous PfAMA1. Antibodies were used at 0.2 mg ml−1. Normalised relative invasion efficiencies (expressed as %) were calculated by dividing the parasitaemia values of the antibody-treated cultures with those of parallel cultures allowed to undergo invasion in the absence of antibodies (peptide R1 only). Error bars indicate standard deviation values.