title: Population structure and transmission dynamics of Plasmodium vivax in rural Amazonia.
abstract: Understanding the genetic structure of malaria parasites is essential to predict how fast some phenotypes of interest originate and spread in populations. In the present study, we used highly polymorphic microsatellite markers to analyze 74 Plasmodium vivax isolates, which we collected in cross-sectional and longitudinal surveys performed in an area of low malaria endemicity in Brazilian Amazonia, and to explore the transmission dynamics of genetically diverse haplotypes or strains. P. vivax populations are more diverse and more frequently comprise multiple-clone infections than do sympatric Plasmodium falciparum isolates, but these features paradoxically coexist with high levels of inbreeding, leading to significant multilocus linkage disequilibrium. Moreover, the high rates of microsatellite haplotype replacement that we found during 15 months of follow-up most likely do not result from strong diversifying selection. We conclude that the small-area genetic diversity in P. vivax populations under low-level transmission is not severely constrained by the low rates of effective meiotic recombination, with clear public health implications.
authors.affiliation: Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA.
authors.forename: Marcelo U
authors.initials: MU
authors.lastname: Ferreira
authors.forename: Nadira D
authors.initials: ND
authors.lastname: Karunaweera
authors.forename: Monica
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: da Silva-Nunes
authors.forename: Natal S
authors.initials: NS
authors.lastname: da Silva
authors.forename: Dyann F
authors.initials: DF
authors.lastname: Wirth
authors.forename: Daniel L
authors.initials: DL
authors.lastname: Hartl
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001938:Brazil / Q000453:epidemiology; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D014644:Genetic Variation; D006239:Haplotypes; D006801:Humans; D015810:Linkage Disequilibrium / Q000235:genetics; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D016780:Malaria, Vivax / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000635:transmission*; D018895:Microsatellite Repeats / Q000235:genetics*; D010966:Plasmodium vivax / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics* / Q000472:pathogenicity; D011110:Polymorphism, Genetic; D012424:Rural Population; D013997:Time Factors