TY - JOUR
T1 - Limited global diversity of the Plasmodium vivax merozoite surface protein 4 gene
AU - Putaporntip, Chaturong
AU - Jongwutiwes, Somchai
AU - Ferreira, Marcelo U.
AU - Kanbara, Hiroji
AU - Udomsangpetch, Rachanee
AU - Cui, Liwang
N1 - Funding Information:
We are grateful to all patients who donated their blood samples for this analysis. This work was supported by research grants from The National Research Council of Thailand and The Thai Government Research Budget to S.J. and C.P., a grant from The Thailand Research Fund (RMU5080002) to C.P. and a grant (D43-TW006571) from Fogarty International Center, National Institutes of Health to L.C.
PY - 2009/9
Y1 - 2009/9
N2 - Merozoite surface proteins (MSPs) of the malaria parasites are major candidates for vaccine development targeting asexual blood stages. However, the diverse antigenic repertoire of these antigens that induce strain-specific protective immunity in human is a major challenge for vaccine design and often determines the efficacy of a vaccine. Here we further assessed the genetic diversity of Plasmodium vivax MSP4 (PvMSP4) protein using 195 parasite samples collected mostly from Thailand, Indonesia and Brazil. Overall, PvMSP4 is highly conserved with only eight amino acid substitutions. The majority of the haplotype diversity was restricted to the two short tetrapeptide repeat arrays in exon 1 and 2, respectively. Selection and neutrality tests indicated that exon 1 and the entire coding region of PvMSP4 were under purifying selection. Despite the limited nucleotide polymorphism of PvMSP4, significant genetic differentiation among the three major parasite populations was detected. Moreover, microgeographical heterogeneity was also evident in the parasite populations from different endemic areas of Thailand.
AB - Merozoite surface proteins (MSPs) of the malaria parasites are major candidates for vaccine development targeting asexual blood stages. However, the diverse antigenic repertoire of these antigens that induce strain-specific protective immunity in human is a major challenge for vaccine design and often determines the efficacy of a vaccine. Here we further assessed the genetic diversity of Plasmodium vivax MSP4 (PvMSP4) protein using 195 parasite samples collected mostly from Thailand, Indonesia and Brazil. Overall, PvMSP4 is highly conserved with only eight amino acid substitutions. The majority of the haplotype diversity was restricted to the two short tetrapeptide repeat arrays in exon 1 and 2, respectively. Selection and neutrality tests indicated that exon 1 and the entire coding region of PvMSP4 were under purifying selection. Despite the limited nucleotide polymorphism of PvMSP4, significant genetic differentiation among the three major parasite populations was detected. Moreover, microgeographical heterogeneity was also evident in the parasite populations from different endemic areas of Thailand.
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U2 - 10.1016/j.meegid.2009.04.017
DO - 10.1016/j.meegid.2009.04.017
M3 - Article
C2 - 19409511
AN - SCOPUS:67749132432
SN - 1567-1348
VL - 9
SP - 821
EP - 826
JO - Infection, Genetics and Evolution
JF - Infection, Genetics and Evolution
IS - 5
ER -
