Fig. 2: SNF2L depletion leads to altered modes of parasite reproduction.

a Western blotting demonstrating the depletion of SNF2L expression by IAA treatment in the SNF2L-mAID (iSNF2L) strain. ALD was included as a loading control. b Intracellular replication assay illustrating the reduced growth rates and chaotic division patterns of the SNF2L depletion mutants. The number of parasites in each PV of the iSNF2L and ME49-Tir1 strains treated with or without IAA for 24 h (with 12 h of ± IAA pretreatment before the replication assay) was counted. Means ± SEM of n = 3 independent experiments, ***p < 0.0001, Kolmogorov-Smirnov test. SNF2L depletion leads to altered modes of parasite reproduction, as revealed by IFA staining of IMC1, IMC7, or GAP45 in the iSNF2L/IMC7-Myc (c) or iSNF2L (d) strains. The +IAA parasites in (d) were treated with IAA for 36 h in total (12 h of pretreatment in T25 flasks followed by 24 h of treatment on coverslips before imaging). Arrowheads in (c) indicate parasites with replicating/segregating nuclei but no daughter cell formation, whereas arrows indicating endopolygeny-like division. Yellow arrows in (d) indicate splitting of mother parasite or its nucleus, whereas arrowheads indicate parasites without nuclear DNA. e Percentage of SNF2L-depleted parasites undergoing indicated types of reproduction described in (d). More than 100 vacuoles with identifiable mode of reproduction were analyzed in n = 3 independent experiments. Data are presented as means ± SD. Source data are provided as a Source Data file.