title: Using fat to turbo-charge intracellular parasite growth.
abstract: Early during infection, the malaria parasite invades liver cells and undergoes robust replication, generating thousands of new parasites within days. In this issue of Cell Host & Microbe, Itoe et al. (2014) show that parasite replication in the liver depends on the synthesis of host bulk phospholipids, which are incorporated into the expanding parasite and surrounding vacuolar membranes.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Bio21 Institute of Molecular Science and Biotechnology, University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria 3010 Australia. Electronic address: malcolmm@unimelb.edu.au.
authors.forename: Malcolm J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: McConville
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008099:Liver / Q000469:parasitology*; D008288:Malaria / Q000378:metabolism*; D010713:Phosphatidylcholines / Q000096:biosynthesis*; D010962:Plasmodium berghei / Q000378:metabolism*; D010963:Plasmodium falciparum / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D010713:Phosphatidylcholines