Accelerated diversification of nonhuman primate malarias in Southeast Asia: adaptive radiation or geographic speciation?

ABSTRACT: Although parasitic organisms are found worldwide, the relative importance of host specificity and geographic isolation for parasite speciation has been explored in only a few systems. Here, we study Plasmodium parasites known to infect Asian nonhuman primates, a monophyletic group that includes the lineage leading to the human parasite Plasmodium vivax and several species used as laboratory models in malaria research. We analyze the available data together with new samples from three sympatric primate species from Borneo: The Bornean orangutan and the long-tailed and the pig-tailed macaques. We find several species of malaria parasites, including three putatively new species in this biodiversity hotspot. Among those newly discovered lineages, we report two sympatric parasites in orangutans

SUBMITTER: Muehlenbein MP 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4298170 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature