Fig. 6: CRTL structural modelling.

a Left: AlphaFold 2 (AF2) predicted structure of the PBANKA_0916000 encoded protein. Right: The core Drug-Metabolite-Transporter (DMT) region of the protein that is confidently predicted and coloured based on the two transporter bundle domains (orange and cyan) that alternate access using a rocker-switch mechanism. Regions of predicted disorder and extramembrane helices are shown in light grey. b Cartoon representation of a structural superimposition of PbCRTL and PfCRT (RMSD of 2.6 Å) viewed from the digestive vacuole lumen. The two bundles of the DMT-fold that alternate access are coloured in cyan and yellow for PbCRTL and light-blue and sand for PfCRT, respectively. TM5 and TM10 in grey can form an oligomeric interface in some members and show a larger variation. c An electrostatic potential surface representation of PfCRT and PbCRTL protein highlighting the charge differences in the substrate binding cavity; coloured blue to red for positive to negative charge. d Two views of the core of P. berghei CRTL (as modelled on PfCRT) are shown and coloured according to conservation in the genus Plasmodium from brown (not conserved) to teal (high conservation). The conservation of each residue is based on the amino acid alignment in Fig. S7.