Fig. 1

The developmental and associated transcriptomic profile of P. falciparum NF54 gametocytes from commitment to maturity. a Sampling and culturing strategy and stage distribution of parasites on each day of the time course. Colored lines indicate the presence of specific stages at different time points. Abbreviations indicate parasitemia (P) and hematocrit (HC) at induction, * indicate the addition of N-acetyl glucosamine (NAG) or 5% D-sorbitol. Parasite drawings were modified from freely available images (https://smart.servier.com/), under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported Licence. b Morphological development was monitored from induction (day − 2) over 16 days of development using Giemsa-stained thin-smear microscopy. The stage distribution for each day was calculated by counting ≥100 parasites on each day of monitoring. Legend: I-V indicates different stages of gametocyte development, R = ring and T = trophozoite stage asexual parasites. c Pearson correlation coefficients of the total transcriptomes obtained for each day of development. Red boxes indicate localized phases of increased correlation. d Expression of “gold standard” asexual and gametocyte genes [43] are shown for the gametocyte time course in heatmaps. a-d Area plot designates the timing of appearance and abundance of specific stages throughout the time course