Abstract
More than 200 million malaria clinical cases are reported each year due to Plasmodium vivax, the most widespread Plasmodium species in the world. This species has been neglected and understudied for a long time, due to its lower mortality in comparison with Plasmodium falciparum. A renewed interest has emerged in the past decade with the discovery of antimalarial drug resistance and of severe and even fatal human cases. Nonetheless, today there are still significant gaps in our understanding of the population genetics and evolutionary history of P. vivax, particularly because of a lack of genetic data from Africa. To address these gaps, we genotyped 14 microsatellite loci in 834 samples obtained from 28 locations in 20 countries from around the world. We discuss the worldwide population genetic structure and diversity and the evolutionary origin of P. vivax in the world and its introduction into the Americas. This study demonstrates the importance of conducting genome-wide analyses of P. vivax in order to unravel its complex evolutionary history.
Highlights
Plasmodium parasites are the agents responsible for malaria, one of the worst scourges of mankind, with almost 600,000 infant deaths and about 200 million clinical cases reported each year [1]
The emergence of new drug resistance and the discovery of severe and even fatal cases due to P. vivax question the benign status of P. vivax malaria
We used a single genotyping platform to genotype 14 microsatellite markers in 834 samples of P. vivax obtained from 28 locations in 20 countries from around the world, including several populations from East and West Africa
Summary
Plasmodium parasites are the agents responsible for malaria, one of the worst scourges of mankind, with almost 600,000 infant deaths and about 200 million clinical cases reported each year [1]. Among the five Plasmodium species infecting humans, Plasmodium vivax is the most prevalent parasite outside Africa [2]. The continual emergence of new therapeutic resistance and the discovery of severe and even fatal cases due to P. vivax question the benign status of this malaria species [7,8,9,10]. The discovery of P. vivax parasite populations able to infect Duffy-negative reticulocytes of humans from Africa and South America [11,12,13,14,15] pushed the malaria community to consider P. vivax as a major public health issue
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