The permeability of simian erythrocytes to choline was found to be considerably increased after infection by the malaria parasite, Plasmodium knowlesi. Choline entry occurs by a facilitated-diffusion system involving a carrier, which displays temperature-dependence, saturability with choline (Km = 8.5 +/- 0.7 microM) and specificity. This carrier can also be inhibited by a thiol reagent, N-ethylmaleimide, at an inactivation rate which is, in the absence of choline, the same as in normal erythrocytes. Inactivation by N-ethylmaleimide can be accelerated by external choline and prevented by decamethonium, which acts as an inhibitor of choline entry in infected cells (as with dodecyltrimethylammonium). Both ethanolamine and imidazole act as inhibitors or activators of choline entry in infected erythrocytes, depending on the relative concentrations of choline and of the competing compound (i.e. ethanolamine or imidazole). After infection, the maximum velocity reached 2.84 +/- 0.5 nmol/min per 10(10) infected cells, which is more than 10 times the Vmax. of normal erythrocytes. Impairing the biosynthesis of phosphatidylcholine de novo in Plasmodium-infected erythrocytes by various methods (glucose or ATP depletion, high ethanolamine concentrations) did not result in any alteration of choline transport (Km or Vmax.), indicating that the constant triggering and transformation of choline into phosphatidylcholine by the parasite is not directly responsible for the increase in the choline transport rate after infection. This high increase in choline transport activity is more likely related to modifications in choline carriers and/or in their environment after Plasmodium infection.