Critical Steps in Protein Export of Plasmodium falciparum Blood Stages

Plasmodium falciparum blood stages export a large number of proteins into their host red blood cell, leading to changes to the infected cell that are pivotal for parasite survival and contribute to parasite virulence. To reach the host cell, exported proteins follow a multistep pathway that now has been revealed to be similar for different classes of exported proteins. Here we summarise the current understanding about the critical segments in protein export of P. falciparum blood stages and discuss recent findings highlighting protein export as a potential target for chemotherapeutic interventions.