Fig. 5

Roles of NcACBP in parasite lipid metabolism. a The abundance of fatty acids in ΔNcACBP and wild-type parasites was determined by GC-MS. Total lipids were extracted from each strain, followed by derivatization with MethPrep II to yield fatty acid methyl esters, and the lipid amounts were quantified by GC-MS following normalization according to an internal standard (C14:0) and cell numbers. b The incorporation of ¹³C into each fatty acid species is shown. The bars show the means of three technical replicates, and the error bars indicate the standard deviations of these measurements. c Total lipids were extracted from tachyzoites and separated by TLC. Neutral lipids were separated on silica gel plates. Triacylglycerol is indicated by the red rectangle compared with the TAG standard. d Host lipid bodies were observed using Nile red staining. NcSRS2 was used to indicate the outlines of parasites, and the nuclear DNA was stained with Hoechst. Scale-bars: 1 μm