Figure 8

A temporal profile of the proportion of ookinetes exhibiting several markers of apoptosis when cultures in ookinete medium. Gametocytaemic blood was incubated at 19°C for varying times. Ookinetes from the same sample were purified at 3 different time points, 18, 22 and 26 h post-blood collection and checked for 4 markers of apoptosis condensed chromatin (using acridine orange: AO), caspase activity (using CaspaTag: CT), phosphatidylserine translocation (using annexin V: AN) and DNA fragmentation (using TUNEL: TU). Ookinetes staining with propidium iodide alone were regarded as dead: PI,: ookinetes showing annexin and PI staining were regarded as at a late stage of apoptosis: AN+PI. Points are means of 3 independent experiments, n = 150 per sample. The proportion of ookinetes displaying three of the markers increased significantly with time and for each of these markes different letters show significant differences from the proportion displaying this marker at 18 h, error bars: ± SEM.