Diversity, Host Switching and Evolution of Plasmodium Vivax Infecting African Great Apes

Overview

Journal Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A

Specialty Science

Date 2013 May 3

PMID 23637341

Citations 59

Authors

Franck Prugnolle

Virginie Rougeron

Pierre Becquart

Antoine Berry

Boris Makanga

Nil Rahola

Celine Arnathau

Barthelemy Ngoubangoye

Sandie Menard

Eric Willaume

Francisco J Ayala

Didier Fontenille

Benjamin Ollomo

Patrick Durand

Christophe Paupy

Francois Renaud

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Plasmodium vivax is considered to be absent from Central and West Africa because of the protective effect of Duffy negativity. However, there are reports of persons returning from these areas infected with this parasite and observations suggesting the existence of transmission. Among the possible explanations for this apparent paradox, the existence of a zoonotic reservoir has been proposed. May great apes be this reservoir? We analyze the mitochondrial and nuclear genetic diversity of P. vivax parasites isolated from great apes in Africa and compare it to parasites isolated from travelers returning from these regions of Africa, as well as to human isolates distributed all over the world. We show that the P. vivax sequences from parasites of great apes form a clade genetically distinct from the parasites circulating in humans. We show that this clade's parasites can be infectious to humans by describing the case of a traveler returning from the Central African Republic infected with one of them. The relationship between this P. vivax clade in great apes and the human isolates is discussed.

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