VPS18 and parasitic infectious disease: Mislocalization (from now on functional depletion or knock-sideways (KS)) of each core VPS subunit (VPS11/16/18-KS) caused a pronounced growth defect (VPS11: 97.19 ± 2.65%; VPS16: 99.33 ± 0.26%; VPS18: 99.33 ± 0.45%) in comparison to the control parasites with no increase in parasitemia after the first replication cycle (Figs 1D and S1F).