Fig. 8: RON13 kinase activity is important for moving junction formation during invasion.

a Graph representing the proportion of extracellular, invading, and intracellular parasites observed in the pulse-invasion assay. The scheme depicts the three stages of the invasion process considered in this assay (mean ± SD; n = 3 biologically independent experiments). Statistical significance was assessed by a one-way ANOVA significance with Tukey’s multiple comparison. b Quantification of the different types of RON2 and RON4 staining (absent, abnormal, and ring shaped) observed at the MJ of invading parasites. (Mean ± SD; n = 3 biologically independent experiments). Statistical significance was assessed by a one-way ANOVA significance with Tukey’s multiple comparison. c IFAs showing a representative example of RON2, RON4 and RON8 staining (green) of invading RON13-KD parasites obtained from three biologically independent experiments. An arrow indicates the bona fide ring-shaped MJ. Anti-SAG1 (magenta) and anti-actin (blue) antibodies stain the extracellular part of the parasite and the parasite cytoplasm, respectively. For the last row, anti-GAP45 antibodies (blue) were used. Scale bar = 2 µm. d IFAs on RH and RON13-KD intracellular parasites showing that proteins of the RON complex are well expressed and addressed to the rhoptry in RON13-KD-treated parasites. For the first row, RON5 is in magenta and RON9 in green. RON4, RON2, and RON8 are in green. Anti-ARO (magenta) and anti-RON9 (magenta) antibodies are used as rhoptry compartment markers. Scale bar = 2 µm. Image representative of three biologically independent experiments. e WB showing a comparable level of expression of RON complex proteins between RH and RON13-KD parasites using anti-RON2, anti-RON4, and anti-RON5C antibodies. Actin (anti-ACT) is used as a loading control. Image representative of three biologically independent experiments. Source data are provided as a Source data file.