This also revealed a high transcript abundance for FabI and FabB/F in salivary gland sporozoites although this was not the case for FabG and FabZ. We currently do not understand the functional significance of these increases; nevertheless, the pathway is clearly not necessary in this life cycle stage as both fabb/f− and fabz− sporozoites infected the mosquito salivary glands and were able to initiate liver stage infection. The gene discussed is HSD17B8; the disease is infection.