Identification of complex Plasmodium falciparum genetic backgrounds circulating in Africa: a multicountry genomic epidemiology analysis.

ABSTRACT:

Background

The population structure of the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum can reveal underlying adaptive evolutionary processes. Selective pressures to maintain complex genetic backgrounds can encourage inbreeding, producing distinct parasite clusters identifiable by population structure analyses.

Methods

We analysed population structure in 3783 P falciparum genomes from 21 countries across Africa, provided by the MalariaGEN Pf7 dataset. We used Principal Coordinate Analysis to cluster parasites, identity by descent (IBD) methods to identify genomic regions shared by cluster members, and linkage analyses to establish their co-inheritance patterns. Structural variants were reconstructed by de novo assembly and verified by long-read sequencing.

Findings

We ident

SUBMITTER: Miotto O 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11628469 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature