Gene expression in Plasmodium falciparum NF54 and P. falciparum HOX

P. falciparum NF54 proliferates under micro-aerophilic conditions in an environment of 3% O2, 4% CO2, 93% N2. This strain was gradually adapted to proliferate under standard tissue culture conditions of 5% CO2/95% air (~19% O2) to generate P. falciparum HOX. We compared global gene expression profiles of the two strains to identify differences, if any. Asynchronous cultures of P. falciparum NF54 and HOX propagated in O+ RBCs were processed and gene expression analyzed on Affymetrix microarrays. All cultures consised of 80% rings + trophozoites.