Genetic Diversity and Population Genetic Analysis of Plasmodium falciparum Thrombospondin Related Anonymous Protein (TRAP) in Clinical Samples from Saudi Arabia.

ABSTRACT: The thrombospondin related anonymous protein (TRAP) is considered one of the most important pre-erythrocytic vaccine targets. Earlier population genetic studies revealed the TRAP gene to be under strong balancing natural selection. This study is the first attempt to analyze genetic diversity, natural selection, phylogeography and population structure in 199 clinical samples from Saudi Arabia using the full-length PfTRAP gene. We found the rate of nonsynonymous substitutions to be significantly higher than that of synonymous substitutions in the clinical samples, indicating a strong positive or diversifying selection for the full-length gene and the Von Willebrand factor (VWF). The nucleotide diversity was found to be π~0.00789 for the full-length gene; however, higher nucleot

SUBMITTER: Bin Dajem SM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9319867 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature