title: Genomes of cryptic chimpanzee Plasmodium species reveal key evolutionary events leading to human malaria.
abstract: African apes harbour at least six Plasmodium species of the subgenus Laverania, one of which gave rise to human Plasmodium falciparum. Here we use a selective amplification strategy to sequence the genome of chimpanzee parasites classified as Plasmodium reichenowi and Plasmodium gaboni based on the subgenomic fragments. Genome-wide analyses show that these parasites indeed represent distinct species, with no evidence of cross-species mating. Both P. reichenowi and P. gaboni are 10-fold more diverse than P. falciparum, indicating a very recent origin of the human parasite. We also find a remarkable Laverania-specific expansion of a multigene family involved in erythrocyte remodelling, and show that a short region on chromosome 4, which encodes two essential invasion genes, was horizontally transferred into a recent P. falciparum ancestor. Our results validate the selective amplification strategy for characterizing cryptic pathogen species, and reveal evolutionary events that likely predisposed the precursor of P. falciparum to colonize humans.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, 19104 Pennsylvania, USA.|Department of Microbiology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, 19104 Pennsylvania, USA.
authors.forename: Sesh A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Sundararaman
authors.affiliation: Institute of Evolutionary Biology and Centre for Immunity, Infection and Evolution, University of Edinburgh, EH9 3FL Edinburgh, UK.
authors.forename: Lindsey J
authors.initials: LJ
authors.lastname: Plenderleith
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, 19104 Pennsylvania, USA.
authors.forename: Weimin
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, 19104 Pennsylvania, USA.|Department of Microbiology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, 19104 Pennsylvania, USA.
authors.forename: Dorothy E
authors.initials: DE
authors.lastname: Loy
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, 19104 Pennsylvania, USA.
authors.forename: Gerald H
authors.initials: GH
authors.lastname: Learn
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, 19104 Pennsylvania, USA.
authors.forename: Yingying
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, 19104 Pennsylvania, USA.
authors.forename: Katharina S
authors.initials: KS
authors.lastname: Shaw
authors.affiliation: Unité Mixte Internationale 233, Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD), INSERM U1175, University of Montpellier, 34394 Montpellier, France.
authors.forename: Ahidjo
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ayouba
authors.affiliation: Unité Mixte Internationale 233, Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD), INSERM U1175, University of Montpellier, 34394 Montpellier, France.
authors.forename: Martine
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Peeters
authors.affiliation: Sanaga-Yong Chimpanzee Rescue Center, IDA-Africa, Portland, 97204 Oregon, USA.
authors.forename: Sheri
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Speede
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, 19104 Pennsylvania, USA.|Department of Microbiology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, 19104 Pennsylvania, USA.
authors.forename: George M
authors.initials: GM
authors.lastname: Shaw
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, 19104 Pennsylvania, USA.
authors.forename: Frederic D
authors.initials: FD
authors.lastname: Bushman
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, 19104 Pennsylvania, USA.
authors.forename: Dustin
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Brisson
authors.affiliation: Malaria Programme, Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Wellcome Genome Campus, CB10 1SA Cambridge, UK.
authors.forename: Julian C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Rayner
authors.affiliation: Institute of Evolutionary Biology and Centre for Immunity, Infection and Evolution, University of Edinburgh, EH9 3FL Edinburgh, UK.
authors.forename: Paul M
authors.initials: PM
authors.lastname: Sharp
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, 19104 Pennsylvania, USA.|Department of Microbiology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, 19104 Pennsylvania, USA.
authors.forename: Beatrice H
authors.initials: BH
authors.lastname: Hahn
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D005075:Biological Evolution; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D014644:Genetic Variation; D018503:Genome, Protozoan / Q000235:genetics*; D006801:Humans; D016778:Malaria, Falciparum / Q000469:parasitology*; D005810:Multigene Family; D002679:Pan troglodytes / Q000469:parasitology*; D010802:Phylogeny; D010961:Plasmodium / Q000235:genetics; D010963:Plasmodium falciparum / Q000235:genetics*; D060888:Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction