title: Genetic diversity of the Plasmodium vivax merozoite surface protein-5 locus from diverse geographic origins.
abstract: Plasmodium vivax merozoite surface protein-5 (PvMsp-5), a potential vaccine candidate, is encoded by a two-exon single copy gene. We have conducted a comprehensive analysis of PvMsp-5 by sequencing the entire gene of four parasite populations from northwestern Thailand (n=73), southern Thailand (n=53), Indonesia (n=25) and Brazil (n=24), and five isolates from other endemic areas. Results reveal that exon I exhibits a significantly higher level of nucleotide diversity at both synonymous and nonsynonymous sites than exon II (p<0.01). Neutrality tests based on both intraspecific and interspecific nucleotide polymorphism have detected a signature of positive selection in exon I of all populations while substitutions in exon II mainly followed neutral expectation except that three residues in exon II of northwestern Thailand population appear to be positively selected using the Bayes Empirical Bayes method. Short imperfect repeats were identified in exon I at an equivalent region to its orthologue in P. knowlesi, supporting their close genetic relatedness. Significant levels of population subdivision were detected among most populations including those between northwestern and southern Thailand (p<10(-5)), implying absent or minimal gene flow between these populations. Importantly, evidences for intragenic recombination in PvMsp-5 were found in most populations except that from southern Thailand in which haplotype diversity and nucleotide diversity were exceptionally low. Results from Fu and Li's D*, F* and D and F tests suggested that PvMsp-5 of most P. vivax populations have been maintained by balancing selection whereas southern Thailand population could have gone through recent bottleneck events. These findings are concordant with a substantial reduction in the number of P. vivax cases in southern Thailand during the past decade, followed by a very recent population expansion. Therefore, spatio-temporal monitoring of parasite population genetics provides important implications for disease control.
authors.affiliation: Molecular Biology of Malaria and Opportunistic Parasites Research Unit, Department of Parasitology, Faculty of Medicine, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand.
authors.forename: Chaturong
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Putaporntip
authors.forename: Rachanee
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Udomsangpetch
authors.forename: Urassaya
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Pattanawong
authors.forename: Liwang
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Cui
authors.forename: Somchai
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Jongwutiwes
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D001483:Base Sequence; D001938:Brazil / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D056426:Genetic Loci; D014644:Genetic Variation; D006801:Humans; D007214:Indonesia / Q000453:epidemiology; D016780:Malaria, Vivax / Q000097:blood / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000469:parasitology; D008297:Male; D008565:Membrane Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics*; D010802:Phylogeny; D010966:Plasmodium vivax / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics*; D015800:Protozoan Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D013785:Thailand / Q000453:epidemiology
chemical_list: D008565:Membrane Proteins; D015800:Protozoan Proteins; C114957:merozoite surface protein 5