PfClpC Inhibition Reduces Replication Rate and Apicoplast Integrity. PfClpC-DDD parasites were incubated for 10 days without TMP and then stained with antibodies against HA (red), ACP (green), and DAPI (blue). Both clones of PfClpC-DDD parasites are shown as indicated. Images from left to right are anti-HA (red), anti-ACP (green), DAPI (parasite nucleus, blue), fluorescence merge, and phase. Z stack images were deconvolved and projected as a combined single image. Scale bar, 5 mm. The canonical apicoplast morphology was lost, and we detected PfClpC, as well as the apicoplast resident protein ACP, in a punctate, vesicle-like pattern, suggesting that apicoplast integrity was compromised.

Florentin A, Cobb DW, Fishburn JD, Cipriano MJ, Kim PS, Fierro MA, Striepen B, Muralidharan V. PfClpC Is an Essential Clp Chaperone Required for Plastid Integrity and Clp Protease Stability in Plasmodium falciparum. Cell Rep. 2017 21(7):1746-1756.