Analysis of Pvama1 genes from China-Myanmar border reveals little regional genetic differentiation of Plasmodium vivax populations. Issue 1 (December 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Zhu, Xiaotong; Zhao, Pan; Wang, Si; Liu, Fei; Liu, Jun; Wang, Jian; Yang, Zhaoqing; Yan, Guiyun; Fan, Qi; Cao, Yaming; Cui, Liwang
• Is Part Of: Parasites & vectors. Volume 9:Issue 1(2016)
• Page Start: 1
• Page End: 12
• Publication Date: 2016-12
• Subjects: Plasmodium vivax -- Pvama1 -- Genetic diversity -- China-Myanmar border -- Malaria; Parasitism -- Periodicals; Parasites -- Periodicals; Vector-pathogen relationships -- Periodicals; Animals as carriers of disease -- Periodicals; Insects as carriers of disease -- Periodicals; 616.96
• DOI: 10.1186/s13071-016-1899-1
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1756-3305

Abstract

Abstract Background With the premise of diminishing parasite genetic diversity following the reduction of malaria incidence, the analysis of polymorphic antigenic markers may provide important information about the impact of malaria control on local parasite populations. Here we evaluated the genetic diversity ofPlasmodium vivax apical membrane antigen 1 (Pvama1 ) gene in a parasite population from the China-Myanmar border and compared it with globalP. vivax populations. Methods We performed evolutionary analysis to examine the genetic diversity, natural selection, and population differentiation of 73Pvama1 sequences acquired from the China-Myanmar border as well as 615 publically availablePvama1 sequences from seven globalP. vivax populations. Results A total of 308Pvama1 haplotypes were identified among the globalP. vivax isolates. The overall nucleotide diversity ofPvama1 gene among the 73 China-Myanmar border parasite isolates was 0.008 with 41 haplotypes being identified (Hd = 0.958). Domain I (DI) harbored the majority (26/33) of the polymorphic sites. The McDonald Kreitman test showed a significant positive selection across the ectodomain and the DI ofPvama1 . The fixation index (F ST ) estimation between the China-Myanmar border, Thailand (0.01) and Myanmar (0.10) showed only slight geographical genetic differentiation. Notably, the Sal-I haplotype was not detected in any of the analyzed global isolates, whereas the Belem strain was restricted to the Thai population. The detected mutations are mapped outside the overlapped region of the predicted B-cell epitopes and intrinsically unstructured/disordered regions. Conclusions This study revealed high levels of genetic diversity ofPvama1 in theP. vivax parasite population from the China-Myanmar border with DI displaying stronger diversifying selection than other domains. There were low levels of population subdivision among parasite populations from the Greater Mekong Subregion.