Plasmodium malariae structure and genetic diversity in sub-Saharan Africa determined from microsatellite variants and linked SNPs in orthologues of antimalarial resistance genes

Plasmodium malariae , a neglected human malaria parasite, contributes up to 10% of malaria infections in sub-Saharan Africa (sSA). Though P. malariae infection is considered clinically benign, it presents mostly as coinfections with the dominant P. falciparum . Completion of its reference genome has...

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Published in:	Scientific reports Vol. 12; no. 1; pp. 21881 - 12
Main Authors:	Oriero, Eniyou C., Demba, Martha A., Diop, Mouhamadou F., Ishengoma, Deus S., Amenga-Etego, Lucas N., Ghansah, Anita, Apinjoh, Tobias, Issiaka, Soulama, Djimde, Abdoulaye, D’Alessandro, Umberto, Meremikwu, Martin, Amambua-Ngwa, Alfred
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	English
Published:	London Nature Publishing Group UK 19-12-2022 Nature Portfolio
Subjects:	631/208 631/337 692/308 692/699 Africa South of the Sahara Antimalarials - therapeutic use Drug Resistance - genetics Humanities and Social Sciences Humans Malaria - parasitology Microsatellite Repeats multidisciplinary Plasmodium malariae - genetics Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide Science Science (multidisciplinary) Africa South of the Sahara
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Summary:	Plasmodium malariae , a neglected human malaria parasite, contributes up to 10% of malaria infections in sub-Saharan Africa (sSA). Though P. malariae infection is considered clinically benign, it presents mostly as coinfections with the dominant P. falciparum . Completion of its reference genome has paved the way to further understand its biology and interactions with the human host, including responses to antimalarial interventions. We characterized 75 P. malariae isolates from seven endemic countries in sSA using highly divergent microsatellites. The P. malariae infections were highly diverse and five subpopulations from three ancestries (independent of origin of isolates) were determined. Sequences of 11 orthologous antimalarial resistance genes, identified low frequency single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), strong linkage disequilibrium between loci that may be due to antimalarial drug selection. At least three sub-populations were detectable from a subset of denoised SNP data from mostly the mitochondrial cytochrome b coding region. This evidence of diversity and selection calls for including P. malariae in malaria genomic surveillance towards improved tools and strategies for malaria elimination.
ISSN:	2045-2322 2045-2322
DOI:	10.1038/s41598-022-26625-w