Mutant/mutation
A mutant expressing firefly luciferase (FL) under control of the promoter of PBANKA_040200 (palmitoyl transferase) and Renilla luciferase (RL) under control of the constitutive eef1a promoter

Protein (function)
No data is presented on the function of PBANKA_040200 (palmitoyl transferase).

Phenotype
A high firefly luciferase expression in sporozoites but nearly no FL activity in the blood and oocyst stage as well as in vitro in early liver stages. Increasing luciferase activity in late liver stages (>48h).

Additional information
In this study, this mutant is used as a control to measure promoter activity in liver stages using tow different luciferases (firefly, Renilla) introduced on a single plasmid (see RMgm-594). PBANKA_040200 was identified as being expressed at a low level in the liver relative to other stages. The upstream region of this gene was cloned in front of the FL resulting in the plasmid pFL₈₆₉RL_ef1a (see also RMgm-594).
The plasmid used, allows integration into the P. berghei d/c ssu rrna locus, but is also able to persist in the parasite population as an episome. As both luciferases are encoded on the plasmid and therefore the genes are always present in equal numbers, it was not necessary to analyze genetically whether the parasite populations contained integrated or episomal gene copies or (as is most likely) a mixture of both.

Other mutants
RMgm-593: A mutant expressing gfp under control of the PBANKA_100300 promoter
RMgm-594: A mutant expressing firefly luciferase under control of the PBANKA_100300 promoter and Renilla luciferase under control of the constitutive eef1a promoter