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Fig. 6 | Malaria Journal

Fig. 6

From: Metabolic alterations in the erythrocyte during blood-stage development of the malaria parasite

Fig. 6

Normalized abundance of important metabolites of glucose, phospholipid, and pyrimidine metabolism in uninfected (uRBC) and parasite-infected erythrocyte (iRBC) cultures. a Abundance of glucose, phosphoenolpyruvate (PEP), and lactate during the intraerythrocytic developmental cycle (IDC). Glucose decreased in iRBC cultures, whereas it was stable in uRBC cultures. The increase in lactate was commensurate with glucose consumption, indicating active parasite metabolism. b Abundance of phosphocholine (PCho), phosphoethanolamine (PEth), and lyso phosphatidylcholine (PtdCho) 16:0 during the IDC. PCho and PEth are precursors of PtdCho and phosphatidylethanolamine, respectively, which account for ~ 75% to 85% of parasite phospholipids [49]. In addition to PEth, the parasite also utilizes lyso PtdCho to synthesize PtdCho [69], which also decreased over time in iRBC cultures. c Parasites synthesize N-carbamoyl-l-aspartate (NCD) in the first step, dihydroorotate in the second step, and orotate in the third step of de novo pyrimidine synthesis [27]. These metabolites increased in the iRBC cultures, consistent with the synthesis of parasite DNA [70]

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