A virus associated with the zoonotic pathogen Plasmodium knowlesi causing human malaria is a member of a diverse and unclassified viral taxon.

ABSTRACT: The Apicomplexa are a phylum of single-celled eukaryotes that can infect humans and include the mosquito-borne parasite Plasmodium, the cause of malaria. Viruses that infect non-Plasmodium spp. disease-causing protozoa affect the pathogen life cycle and disease outcomes. However, only one RNA virus (Matryoshka RNA virus 1) has been identified in Plasmodium, and none have been identified in zoonotic Plasmodium species. The rapid expansion of the known RNA virosphere via metagenomic sequencing suggests that this dearth is due to the divergent nature of RNA viruses that infect protozoa. We leveraged newly uncovered data sets to explore the virome of human-infecting Plasmodium species collected in Sabah, east (Borneo) Malaysia. From this, we identified a high

SUBMITTER: Petrone ME 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11605544 | biostudies-literature | 2024

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature