title: Worldwide sequence conservation of transmission-blocking vaccine candidate Pvs230 in Plasmodium vivax.
abstract: Pfs230, surface protein of gametocyte/gamete of the human malaria parasite, Plasmodium falciparum, is a prime candidate of malaria transmission-blocking vaccine. Plasmodium vivax has an ortholog of Pfs230 (Pvs230), however, there has been no study in any aspects on Pvs230 to date. To investigate whether Pvs230 can be a vivax malaria transmission-blocking vaccine, we performed evolutionary and population genetic analysis of the Pvs230 gene (pvs230: PVX_003905). Our analysis of Pvs230 and its orthologs in eight Plasmodium species revealed two distinctive parts: an interspecies variable part (IVP) containing species-specific oligopeptide repeats at the N-terminus and a 7.5kb interspecies conserved part (ICP) containing 14 cysteine-rich domains. Pvs230 was closely related to its orthologs, Pks230 and Pcys230, in monkey malaria parasites. Analysis of 113 pvs230 sequences obtained from worldwide, showed that nucleotide diversity is remarkably low in the non-repeat 8-kb region of pvs230 (θπ=0.00118) with 77 polymorphic nucleotide sites, 40 of which results in amino acid replacements. A signature of purifying selection but not of balancing selection was seen on pvs230. Functional and/or structural constraints may limit the level of polymorphism in pvs230. The observed limited polymorphism in pvs230 should ground for utilization of Pvs230 as an effective transmission-blocking vaccine.
authors.affiliation: Cell-free Science and Technology Research Center, Ehime University, Matsuyama, Ehime 790-8577, Japan.
authors.forename: Masanori
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Doi
authors.forename: Kazuyuki
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Tanabe
authors.forename: Shin-Ichiro
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Tachibana
authors.forename: Meiko
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hamai
authors.forename: Mayumi
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Tachibana
authors.forename: Toshihiro
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Mita
authors.forename: Masanori
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Yagi
authors.forename: Fadile Yildiz
authors.initials: FY
authors.lastname: Zeyrek
authors.forename: Marcelo U
authors.initials: MU
authors.lastname: Ferreira
authors.forename: Hiroshi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ohmae
authors.forename: Akira
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kaneko
authors.forename: Milijaona
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Randrianarivelojosia
authors.forename: Jetsumon
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Sattabongkot
authors.forename: Ya-Ming
authors.initials: YM
authors.lastname: Cao
authors.forename: Toshihiro
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Horii
authors.forename: Motomi
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Torii
authors.forename: Takafumi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Tsuboi
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D000953:Antigens, Protozoan / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology*; D017124:Conserved Sequence; D016054:DNA, Protozoan / Q000032:analysis; D006801:Humans; D017780:Malaria Vaccines / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology*; D016780:Malaria, Vivax / Q000469:parasitology / Q000517:prevention & control* / Q000635:transmission*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D010966:Plasmodium vivax / Q000276:immunology*; D015800:Protozoan Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology*; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA
chemical_list: D000953:Antigens, Protozoan; D016054:DNA, Protozoan; D017780:Malaria Vaccines; D015800:Protozoan Proteins