Genetic Diversity and Natural Selection of the Plasmodium knowlesi Circumsporozoite Protein Nonrepeat Regions.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Plasmodium knowlesi is a simian malaria parasite that has been identified to cause malaria in humans. To date, several thousand cases of human knowlesi malaria have been reported around Southeast Asia. Thus far, there is no detailed study on genetic diversity and natural selection of P. knowlesi circumsporozoite protein (CSP), a prominent surface antigen on the sporozoite of the parasite. In the present study, the genetic diversity and natural selection acting on the nonrepeat regions of the gene encoding P. knowlesi CSP were investigated, focusing on the T-cell epitope regions at the C-terminal of the protein.

Methods

Blood samples from 32 knowlesi malaria patients and 2 wild monkeys (Macaca fascicularis) were used. The CSP of the P. knowlesi isolates was amplifi

SUBMITTER: Fong MY 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4575020 | biostudies-literature | 2015

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature