Fig. 1

Plasmodium berghei has an asynchronous IDC. Figure created from data in O’Donnell 2019 [49]. The proportion of parasites at each IDC stage does not differ significantly between morning (10:00 UTC; ZT3) and evening (20:00 UTC; ZT13), \(\chi_{4}^{2}\) = 5.83, P = 0.21. Shown in (a) are median parasite stage proportions (black line) and 25–75 percentiles, with whiskers 1.5 times the interquartile range and dots representing outliers. Shown in (b) is the mean parasite stage proportion. Note, rings, early trophozoites (troph) and mid trophozoites compose the majority of stages observed in peripheral blood, with late trophozoites and schizonts present but in reduced numbers due to sequestration to deep tissues [3, 49, 50]. Infections (n = 6) were sampled on Day 5 PI from wild type MF1 mice in a standard 12 h light: 12 h dark photoperiod