To mediate its survival and virulence, the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum exports hundreds of proteins into the host erythrocyte. To enter the host cell, exported proteins must cross the parasitophorous vacuolar membrane (PVM) within which the parasite resides, but the mechanism remains unclear. A putative Plasmodium translocon of exported proteins (PTEX) has been suggested to be involved for at least one class of exported proteins; however, direct functional evidence for this has been elusive.