Fig. 3: Depletion of AP2XI-2 induces tachyzoites-to-merozoites switch under alkaline condition.

a Volcano plot showing the differentially expressed genes in the AP2XI-2-expressing and AP2XI-2-depleted strains grown under alkaline culture conditions for 3 days. The merozoite, bradyzoite, sporozoite and tachyzoite highly expressed genes were analyzed from Supplementary data 1. Data from four biological replicates were plotted and a fold change of ≥2.0 or ≤−2.0 with a p-value < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. b Volcano plot showing the differentially expressed genes in the AP2XI-2-expressing and AP2XI-2-depleted strains grown under neutral culture conditions. The merozoite, bradyzoite, sporozoite and tachyzoite highly expressed genes were analyzed from Supplementary data 1. Data from four biological replicates were plotted and a fold change of ≥2.0 or ≤−2.0 with a p-value < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. c Representative images of AP2XI-2 knockdown (KD) parasite strains grown in a neutral or an alkaline culture medium without CO₂ for 3 days for induction of merogony. IMC1 (magenta) specifically stains the (developing) merozoites, whereas IMC7-2Ty (red) is specific to the polyploid AP2XI-2-depleted schizonts. M merozoite, S schizont. Scale bar, 10 µm.