Plasmodium vivax lineages: geographical distribution, tandem repeat polymorphism, and phylogenetic relationship

Abstract

BackgroundMulti-drug resistance and severe/complicated cases are the emerging phenotypes of vivax malaria, which may deteriorate current anti-malarial control measures. The emergence of these phenotypes could be associated with either of the two Plasmodium vivax lineages. The two lineages had been categorized as Old World and New World, based on geographical sub-division and genetic and phenotypical markers. This study revisited the lineage hypothesis of P. vivax by typing the distribution of lineages among global isolates and evaluated their genetic relatedness using a panel of new mini-satellite markers.Methods18S SSU rRNA S-type gene was amplified from 420 Plasmodium vivax field isolates collected from different geographical regions of India, Thailand and Colombia as well as four strains each of P. vivax originating from Nicaragua, Panama, Thailand (Pak Chang), and Vietnam (ONG). A mini-satellite marker panel was then developed to understand the population genetic parameters and tested on a sample subset of both lineages.Results18S SSU rRNA S-type gene typing revealed the distribution of both lineages (Old World and New World) in all geographical regions. However, distribution of Plasmodium vivax lineages was highly variable in every geographical region. The lack of geographical sub-division between lineages suggests that both lineages are globally distributed. Ten mini-satellites were scanned from the P. vivax genome sequence; these tandem repeats were located in eight of the chromosomes. Mini-satellites revealed substantial allelic diversity (7-21, AE = 14.6 ± 2.0) and heterozygosity (He = 0.697-0.924, AE = 0.857 ± 0.033) per locus. Mini-satellite comparison between the two lineages revealed high but similar pattern of genetic diversity, allele frequency, and high degree of allele sharing. A Neighbour-Joining phylogenetic tree derived from genetic distance data obtained from ten mini-satellites also placed both lineages together in every cluster.ConclusionsThe global lineage distribution, lack of genetic distance, similar pattern of genetic diversity, and allele sharing strongly suggested that both lineages are a single species and thus new emerging phenotypes associated with vivax malaria could not be clearly classified as belonging to a particular lineage on basis of their geographical origin.

Molecular epidemiology of Plasmodium vivax in Latin America: polymorphism and evolutionary relationships of the circumsporozoite gene

“…Interestingly, two P. vivax lineages (Old and New World) were previously proposed, based on mosquito susceptibility and ribosomal gene isoforms [6]. Extensive work only on the ribosomal variation with Colombian and Indian isolates partially contradicted the existence of such dichotomy [7]. It is possible to speculate that at least the isolates classified by Li et al [6] as “New World” might be related to the C1A cluster, a subgroup of the 18S ribosomal RNA type Sal-I likely adapted to local An.…”

“…The distribution of P. vivax populations is controversial; some studies indicate a geographical compartmentalization of the New from Old World parasites [6], but this is not supported by others [7]. Consistently, population genetics of parasites in temperate zones from China suggest an ancient population expansion [8].…”

Quantifying Effect of Geographic Location on Epidemiology ofPlasmodium vivaxMalaria

“…These schemes were suggested on the basis of observed clinical characteristics, but quantitative data to support these distinctions are sparse ( 14 – 16 ). Recent molecular and entomologic data suggests that P. vivax may consist of 2 subspecies, 1 in the Old World/Eastern Hemisphere ( P. vivax vivax) and the other in the Americas ( P. vivax collins ) ( 17 ); however, research with other isolates has not confirmed these results ( 18 ). These 2 strains/subspecies show remarkable differences in their infectivity to different Anopheles spp.…”

Neutral Polymorphisms in Putative Housekeeping Genes and Tandem Repeats Unravels the Population Genetics and Evolutionary History of Plasmodium vivax in India

“…Human populations at these study sites do not have the Duffy negative trait [27]. Other details about the study sites such as parasite and vector species prevalence and disease transmission patterns are given in the Text S1 and reported elsewhere [28], [29]. DNA extraction was as described in reference [28], [29].…”

“…The allele frequency distribution analysis (mode shift analysis) showed whether it was approximately L-shaped (as expected under mutation-drift equilibrium) or not (recent bottlenecks provoke a mode shift). Bottleneck analysis can be performed using tandem repeat polymorphism data; the minisatellite polymorphism data being used in this study has been taken from earlier published work [28]. We also used network analysis of tandem repeat polymorphisms to detect possible signatures of bottlenecked or stable populations [42].…”