[2] Apicoplasts are a relict, nonphotosynthetic plastid found in most protozoan parasites belonging to the phylum Apicomplexa.
[4] And, with the emergence of malarial strains resistant to current treatments it is paramount that novel therapies, like herbicides, are explored and understood.
[5] Furthermore, herbicides may be able to specifically target the parasite's plant-like apicoplast without any noticeable effect on the mammalian host's cells.
[8] These losses of function are hypothesized to have occurred at an early evolutionary stage in order to have allowed sufficient time for the complete degradation of acknowledged photosynthetic relicts[4] and the disappearance of a nucleomorph.
[8] Most Apicomplexa contain a single ovoid shaped apicoplast that is found at the anterior of the invading parasitic cell.
[9] Within the apicoplast's stroma is a 35 kb long circular DNA strand that codes for approximately 30 proteins, tRNAs and some RNAs.
[5] The plastid, at least in the Plasmodium species, also contains "tubular whorls" of membrane that bear a striking resemblance to the thylakoids[4] of their chloroplast relatives.
This conclusion is supported by the discovery of type II fatty acid synthase (FAS) machinery in the apicoplast.