Fig. 2

Growth of Plasmodium cynomolgi populations during five macaque infections. The light blue dots (for better visibility connected with lines) represent parasitaemia data (Y-axis, parasites/µl) reported by Joyner et al. [7] on specific days post-infection as noted on the X-axis. At earlier time points, no iRBCs were observed in blood smears. The orange lines show the best exponential fits corresponding to brood size S. The slim grey cones indicate growth corresponding to reported brood size ranges between 14 and 20, with the overlapping black lines corresponding to an average brood size of 16. a Typical growth trend of a parasite population, observed during a primary infection and a recrudescence subsequent to sub-curative treatment; the computed average brood sizes S in this case are 54 and 41, respectively. b–d According to the best exponential fits to the observed population sizes during the primary infection, the brood sizes S in these panels are 27, 39, and 110, respectively. e This population shows much slower growth, with an average viable brood size S of about 11, which is lower than the observed range and could be explained by reduced parasite efficiency. All monkeys had one or two relapses with lower parasitaemia levels and inferred brood sizes of: 7 (RFa14); 6 and 8 (RSb14); 10 and 8 (RIc14); 7 (RFa14); and 17 (RMe14)