Malaria, a mosquito-borne infectious disease, is caused by the unicellular apicomplexan protozoa of the genus Plasmodium. For malaria parasite transmission, the essential sexual stage includes production of gametocytes through gametocytogenesis in vertebrate hosts and formation of gametes from gametocytes through gametogenesis in mosquito vectors. Whereas each female gametocyte forms a single immotile macrogamete, a male gametocyte produces eight flagella-like microgametes in a process called exflagellation. We identified a conserved protein named as Py05543 (Pyp25α), required for male gametocyte exflagellation in Plasmodium yoelii, which is the ortholog of PFL1770c (PF3D7_1236600). Interestingly, PF3D7_1236600 was previously phenotypically screened to be gametocyte-essential genes during gametocytogenesis of Plasmodium falciparum, using piggyBac transposon-mediated insertional mutagenesis. In this study, using CRISPR/Cas9-mediated genome editing, the Pyp25α¯ (KO) parasite line was successfully established. We found that the KO parasites proliferated asexually in mouse blood normally. In addition, compared with that of the parental parasites, the KO parasites displayed similar levels of gametocytes formation. Unexpectedly, the KO parasites showed considerable deficiency in exflagellation of male gametes, by observing exflagellation centre formation. Taken together, our data suggested that Pyp25α gene, the ortholog of PF3D7_1236600, was nonessential for the growth of asexual parasites, required for male gametocyte exflagellation in P. yoelii.

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Lithium-sulfur batteries have been deemed as one of the most promising energy storage systems for the next-generation batteries. However, some serious challenges hinder the commercialization, such as the shuttle effect of polysulfides and sluggish redox kinetics. Herein, novel FeP/spongy carbon (SC) composites with multiple adsorptions and catalytic sites are prepared as a modified separator. Specifically, the SC proves the structural stability and long ions/electron transmission channel. The adding of FeP can spontaneously react with polysulfides to block the shuttling and catalyze the conversion of sulfur chemistry. The formed adsorption-diffu-sion-conversion surface is beneficial to reduce the polarization and accelerate the redox kinetics. Furthermore, the FeP/SC modified separator can bring down the flammability to prove high-safety LSBs. Benefiting from these features, the assembled cells with FeP/SC exhibits extraordinary cycling stability (526 mAh g À 1 over 400 cycles at 1 C), a superior rate property with 619 mAh g À 1 at 2 C. Moreover, the cells with a high areal sulfur loading of 4 mg cm À 2 can maintain a capacity of 618 mAh g À 1 after 150 cycles. Such a FeP/SC modified separator provides a potential commercial application for high-safety and advanced Lithium-sulfur batteries.

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