The mechanism by which the intra-erythrocytic form of the human malaria parasite, Plasmodium falciparum, extrudes H ؉ ions and thereby regulates its cytosolic pH (pH i ), was investigated using saponin-permeabilized parasitized erythrocytes. The parasite was able both to maintain its resting pH i and to recover from an imposed intracellular acidification in the absence of extracellular Na ؉ , thus ruling out the involvement of a Na ؉ /H ؉ exchanger in both processes. Both phenomena were ATPdependent. Amiloride and the related compound ethylisopropylamiloride caused a substantial reduction in the resting pH i of the parasite, whereas EMD 96785, a potent and allegedly selective inhibitor of Na ؉ /H ؉ exchange, had relatively little effect. The resting pH i of the parasite was also reduced by the sulfhydryl reagent N-ethylmaleimide, by the carboxyl group blocker N,N-dicyclohexylcarbodiimide, and by bafilomycin A 1 , a potent inhibitor of V-type H ؉ -ATPases. Bafilomycin A 1 blocked pH i recovery in parasites subjected to an intracellular acidification and reduced the rate of acidification of a weakly buffered solution by parasites under resting conditions. The data are consistent with the hypothesis that the malaria parasite, like other parasitic protozoa, has in its plasma membrane a V-type H ؉ -ATPase, which serves as the major route for the efflux of H ؉ ions.Malaria, one of the most important infectious diseases in the world today, is caused by parasitic protozoa of the genus Plasmodium. These are unicellular, eukaryotic organisms, which, during the course of their complex lifecycle, invade the red blood cells of their vertebrate host. Having entered a red cell, the invading parasite lies dormant for some hours (the ring stage), after which it begins a period of rapid growth (the trophozoite stage) followed by division (schizogony), resulting in the generation of 20 -30 new parasites.The metabolic and biosynthetic activity of the malaria trophozoite is intense. The parasite is wholly reliant on glycolysis as its energy source, and it consumes glucose and produces lactic acid at a rate some 100 times higher than does a normal, uninfected erythrocyte (1, 2). The high metabolic activity of the parasite generates a substantial intracellular acid load. In addition, in the in vivo situation, malaria infection commonly gives rise to a pronounced extracellular acidosis (3). For the parasite to remain viable, it must therefore have an effective means of protecting its intracellular pH (pH i ) 1 from both intraand extracellular acid loads.Eukaryotic cells extrude H ϩ via a variety of different mechanisms. Plant cells, yeast, various protozoa, and a number of invertebrate and vertebrate cell types have in their plasma membrane H ϩ -ATPases that utilize energy derived from the hydrolysis of ATP to pump H ϩ ions from the cell cytosol (4). These are either P-type ATPases (so-called because they form an acyl-phosphate intermediate during their reaction cycle) or V-type ATPases (so-called because they were first described on t...