Resurrection of the ancestral RH5 invasion ligand provides a molecular explanation for the origin of P. falciparum malaria in humans.

ABSTRACT: Many important infectious diseases are the result of zoonoses, in which pathogens that normally infect animals acquire mutations that enable the breaching of species barriers to permit the infection of humans. Our understanding of the molecular events that enable host switching are often limited, and yet this is a fundamentally important question. Plasmodium falciparum, the etiological agent of severe human malaria, evolved following a zoonotic transfer of parasites from gorillas. One gene-rh5-which encodes an essential ligand for the invasion of host erythrocytes, is suspected to have played a critical role in this host switch. Genome comparisons revealed an introgressed sequence in the ancestor of P. falciparum containing rh5, which likely allowed the ancestral parasites to infect both g

SUBMITTER: Galaway F 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6793842 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature