Proteins encoded by the P. falciparum stevor and rifin multigene families are thought to be distantly related to the pir multigene family of rodent and other non-human primate and human malaria parasites [8, 10, 30] and it has been suggested that PIRs of these species also mediate iRBC rosetting as well as iRBC tissue sequestration [21, 31, 32]. This evidence concerns the gene PIR and malaria.