Journal
GENOME BIOLOGY AND EVOLUTION
Volume 7, Issue 1, Pages 106-119Publisher
OXFORD UNIV PRESS
DOI: 10.1093/gbe/evu267
Keywords
Plasmodium; natural selection; genome variation; Plasmodium vivax; genome architecture
Categories
Funding
- US National Institutes of Health (the International Center of Excellence for Malaria Research: Malaria Evolution in South Asia) [U19AI089688, R01 GM080586]
- USDA [58-6631-0-100]
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Plasmodium vivax is the most prevalent human malaria parasite outside of Africa. Yet, studies aimed to identify genes with signatures consistent with natural selection are rare. Here, we present a comparative analysis of the pattern of genetic variation of five sequenced isolates of P. vivax and its divergence with two closely related species, Plasmodium cynomolgi and Plasmodium knowlesi, using a set of orthologous genes. In contrast to Plasmodium falciparum, the parasite that causes the most lethal form of human malaria, we did not find significant constraints on the evolution of synonymous sites genome wide in P. vivax. The comparative analysis of polymorphism and divergence across loci allowed us to identify 87 genes with patterns consistent with positive selection, including genes involved in the exportome of P. vivax, which are potentially involved in evasion of the host immune system. Nevertheless, we have found a pattern of polymorphism genome wide that is consistent with a significant amount of constraint on the replacement changes and prevalent negative selection. Our analyses also show that silent polymorphism tends to be larger toward the ends of the chromosomes, where many genes involved in antigenicity are located, suggesting that natural selection acts not only by shaping the patterns of variation within the genes but it also affects genome organization.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available