PfRA localizes to the rhoptries of P. falciparum schizonts and merozoites. Co-localization of PfRA with (A) PfTRAMP, (B) PfRH5, (C) PfAARP, (D) PfEBA-175 and (E) MSP-1 in schizont stage parasites by confocal immunoflourescence microscopy. PfRA (green) co-localizes with rhoptry bulb protein PfTRAMP

(red) and PfRH5 (red) but does not co-localize with the micronemal protein PfEBA-175 (red) and merozoite surface protein MSP-1 in schizonts. PfRA (green) showed partial co-localization with rhoptry neck protein PfAARP (red). The co-localization of PfRA was quantitatively analyzed and the Pearson correlation co-efficient

with PfTRAMP (0.87) and PfRH5 (0.82) suggested that the two proteins were co-localized with PfRA. The coefficients of PfRA with PfAARP, PfEBA-175 and MSP1 were lower than 0.7 indicating that the three proteins were not co-localized with PfRA. Nuclei were stained with DNA intercalating dye DAPI. (Scale bar, 2 μm.)

Anand G, Reddy KS, Pandey AK, Mian SY, Singh H, Mittal SA, Amlabu E, Bassat Q, Mayor A, Chauhan VS, Gaur D. A novel Plasmodium falciparum rhoptry associated adhesin mediates erythrocyte invasion through the sialic-acid dependent pathway. Sci Rep. 2016 6:29185.