Differential Trafficking and Expression of PIR Proteins in Acute and Chronic Infections.

multigene families are thought to play important roles in the pathogenesis of malaria. genes comprise the largest multigene family in many species. However, their expression pattern and localisation remain to be elucidated.

Analysis of pir gene expression across the Plasmodium life cycle.

Background: Plasmodium interspersed repeat (pir) is the largest multigene family in the genomes of most Plasmodium species. A variety of functions for the PIR proteins which they encode have been proposed, including antigenic variation, immune evasion, sequestration and rosetting. However, direct evidence for these is lacking.