Every parasite harbours a single apicoplast which is located apical of the nucleus.
To study plastid division we imaged GFP tagged parasites throughout the cell cycle. Monlolayers infected with parasites expressing ACP-GFP were incubated in heated dishes on an inverted microscope and observed with a 100X oil immersion objective. Fluorescence and phase contrast images were taken with a cooled CCD camera every 2 min, coloured and merged. The series of frames below show a vacuole of 4 parasite undergoing endodyogeny. Division of the plastid preceeds these events.