Fitness Costs and the Rapid Spread of kelch13-C580Y Substitutions Conferring Artemisinin Resistance.

ABSTRACT: Fitness costs are key determinants of whether drug resistance alleles establish and how fast they spread within populations. More than 125 different kelch13 alleles, each containing a different amino acid substitution, have arisen in Southeast Asian malaria parasite (Plasmodium falciparum) populations under artemisinin selection over the past 15 years in a dramatic example of a soft selective event. However, just one of these alleles (C580Y) is now outcompeting other alleles in multiple different countries and is spreading toward fixation. Here we examine the fitness consequences of C580Y, relative to another less successful kelch13 mutation (R561H), to try to explain the distinctive dynamics of C580Y. We hypothesized that C580Y will show lower fitness costs than other

SUBMITTER: Nair S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6125530 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature