Parasitophorous vacuolar membrane

Since a malaria-infected red cell contains three membrane interfaces the plasma membrane of the red cell, the parasitophorous vacuolar membrane (PVM) and the parasite plasma membrane (PPM) studying membrane transport in such a system is not straightforward. Substrates have to traverse multiple membrane systems and a single membrane may contain multiple transporters for a particular substrate. To complicate the matter further, when we (and others) embarked on such studies not only were we usually unaware of the complexities of the transport systems that might be encountered, we were also unappreciative of the technical difficulties as well as possible artefacts that might result from isolating parasites and using heavy infections in unnatural hosts or from in vitro cultures. 

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