One hundred parameter initiation values ranging from 5 to 105 were tested and the best converging model with the smallest Sum Square of Error (SSE) was chosen for estimation of doubling time. Acknowledgements We thank Dr. C. Szekeres and Dr. R. Chen at USF Health core facilities for help with flow cytometry and statistical analyses, respectively. We thank B. White, B. Wisler and Y. Xi at the University of Notre Dame for their technical

assistance. This work was supported by grants from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases to J.H.A. Electronic supplementary material Additional file 1:List of piggyBac insertion loci in the P. falciparum genome. Complete check details list ofpiggyBacinsertion loci identified thus far is provided along with the mutant name and insertion position relative to the coding sequences of the genome. (XLS 33 KB) Additional file 2:Best-fit growth curve models for doubling time estimation of mutant clones. The predicted best-fit and observed growth curves for each parasite clone is shown. (PDF 201 KB) Additional file 3:Lack of gene expression in mutant P. falciparum clones with insertions in the coding sequences. RT-PCR analysis confirms the knockout of gene

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