2. 1 P. berghei Scd localized primarily in the endoplasmic reticulum
To study the expression and localization of Scd in the P. bergheilife cycle, the gene was endogenously tagged with 3XHA by using double crossover homologous recombination (Fig. S1A). The correct integration of the targeting cassette at the Scd locus was confirmed by diagnostic PCR (Fig. S1B). Furthermore, the expression of Scd-3XHA was confirmed by western blotting using an anti-HA antibody (Fig. S1C). Transgenic parasites were analyzed throughout the parasite life cycle stages, and we found that the C-terminal tag did not affect parasite development (Fig. S1D and E). Previous studies have demonstrated the association of SCD with the endoplasmic reticulum (Gratraud et al. , 2009). By using Pf Scd-GFP transgenic parasites, it was shown that P. falciparum SCD localized to the ER in asexual blood stages. Similarly, we performed colocalization studies with the ER marker Bip and found that P. berghei was expressed in blood and liver stages and primarily colocalized to the ER (Fig. 1A and B).