Affiliations 

  • 1 Department of Parasitology, Faculty of Medicine, Universiti Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
  • 2 Public Health Laboratory Kota Kinabalu (Ministry of Health Malaysia), 88850 Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia
  • 3 Department of Parasitology, Faculty of Medicine, Universiti Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Electronic address: lauyeeling@um.edu.my
Parasitol Int, 2022 Apr;87:102519.
PMID: 34800724 DOI: 10.1016/j.parint.2021.102519

Abstract

Information about Plasmodium malariae is scanty worldwide due to its "benign" nature and low infection rates. Consequently, studies on the genetic polymorphisms of P. malariae are lacking. Here, we report genetic polymorphisms of 28 P. malariae circumsporozoite protein (Pmcsp) isolates from Malaysia which were compared with those in other regions in Asia as well as those from Africa. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that most Malaysian P. malariae isolates clustered together but independently from other Asian isolates. Low nucleotide diversity was observed in Pmcsp non-repeat regions in contrast to high nucleotide diversity observed in non-repeat regions of Plasmodium knowlesi CSP gene, the current major cause of malaria in Malaysia. This study contributes to the characterisation of naturally occurring polymorphisms in the P. malariae CSP gene.

* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.