Published online by Cambridge University Press: 06 April 2009
Normal mouse erythrocytes and erythrocytes containing Plasmodium berghei were incubated for 1 h in a medium containing either adenosine, guanosine, cytidine or thymidine labelled with 14C or 3H. The purine nucleosides, adenosine and guanosine, but not the pyrimidine nucleosides, cytidine and thymidine, were incorporated into the nucleic acid of the parasite–host cell complex. The concentration achieved by all four nucleosides in both normal and parasitized cells was at least as high as that in the suspending medium, showing that not only purines but also pyrimidines enter the parasitized erythrocyte.