IMC1g knockdowns reveal malaria blood-stage alveolin functions.

Plasmodium alveolins are cytoskeletal proteins with important roles in cell shape, tensile strength, and motility of mosquito-stage ookinetes and sporozoites. Two recent studies by Cepeda Diaz et al. and Liu et al. employ inducible knockdown of the essential blood-stage-expressed alveolin IMC1g to identify new roles in merozoite intracellular survival, schizogonic cell division, and male gametogenesis.