Mutant/mutation
The mutant lacks expression of MDR3

Protein (function)
In different Plasmodium parasites 14-16 ABC-transporter genes have been identified (16 in P. falciparum, 14 in P. berghei). Based on phylogenetic analysis of the conserved nucleotide-binding domains, seven of these are recognized as members of the B family of ABC transporters (both in P. falciparum and in P. berghei). This includes MDR3.

Phenotype
For PbΔmdr3 we have only been able to obtain mutants from a single transfection experiment. Both clones of this experiment showed a strongly reduced growth rate of asexual blood stages (mean multiplication rate of 4.2x per 24 hour in the cloning assay; wild type parasites show a multiplication rate of 10x per 24 hour in this assay).  In all other transfection experiments (n=9) targeting mdr3 we were unable to select for parasites with a disrupted mdr3 locus, probably due to the strong reduction in growth rate. Because of the failure to obtain mutants from an independent transfection experiment and since phenotype analyses of a single mutant may be confounded by mutations that are unrelated to the targeted deletion we decided to not further analyse the phenotype in detail.

Additional information
Northern analysis and RNAseq analyses indicate that mdr3 is transcribed in blood stages. Northern analysis of blood stages of PbΔmdr3 demonstrated the absence of  mdr3 transcripts.

Other mutants
See the link multidrug resistance protein (mdr) for more MDR mutants