A high resolution case study of a patient with recurrent Plasmodium vivax infections shows that relapses were caused by meiotic siblings.

ABSTRACT: Plasmodium vivax infects a hundred million people annually and endangers 40% of the world's population. Unlike Plasmodium falciparum, P. vivax parasites can persist as a dormant stage in the liver, known as the hypnozoite, and these dormant forms can cause malaria relapses months or years after the initial mosquito bite. Here we analyze whole genome sequencing data from parasites in the blood of a patient who experienced consecutive P. vivax relapses over 33 months in a non-endemic country. By analyzing patterns of identity, read coverage, and the presence or absence of minor alleles in the initial polyclonal and subsequent monoclonal infections, we show that the parasites in the three infections are likely meiotic siblings. We infer that these siblings are descended from a single tetrad-l

SUBMITTER: Bright AT 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4046966 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature