Genetic diversity and selection in three Plasmodium vivax merozoite surface protein 7 (Pvmsp-7) genes in a Colombian population.

ABSTRACT: A completely effective vaccine for malaria (one of the major infectious diseases worldwide) is not yet available; different membrane proteins involved in parasite-host interactions have been proposed as candidates for designing it. It has been found that proteins encoded by the merozoite surface protein (msp)-7 multigene family are antibody targets in natural infection; the nucleotide diversity of three Pvmsp-7 genes was thus analyzed in a Colombian parasite population. By contrast with P. falciparum msp-7 loci and ancestral P. vivax msp-7 genes, specie-specific duplicates of the latter specie display high genetic variability, generated by single nucleotide polymorphisms, repeat regions, and recombination. At least three major allele types are present in Pvmsp-7C, Pvmsp-7H and Pvmsp-7I and

SUBMITTER: Garzon-Ospina D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3458108 | biostudies-literature | 2012

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature