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Many human parasites and pathogens have closely related counterparts among non-human primates. For example, non-human primates harbour several species of malaria causing parasites of the genus Plasmodium. Studies suggest that for a better understanding of the origin and evolution of human malaria parasites it is important to know the diversity and evolutionary relationships of these parasites in non-human primates. Much work has been undertaken on malaria parasites in wild great Apes of Africa as well as wild monkeys of Southeast Asia however studies are lacking from South Asia, particularly India. India is one of the major malaria prone regions in the world and exhibits high primate diversity which in turn provides ideal setting for both zoonoses and anthropozoonoses. In this study we report the molecular data for malaria parasites from wild populations of Indian non-human primates. We surveyed 349 fecal samples from five different Indian non-human primates, while 94 blood and tissue samples from one of the Indian non-human primate species (Macaca radiata) and one blood sample from M. mulatta. Our results confirm the presence of P. fragile, P. inui and P. cynomolgi in Macaca radiata. Additionally, we report for the first time the presence of human malarial parasite, P. falciparum, in M. mulatta and M. radiata. Additionally, our results indicate that M. radiata does not exhibit population structure probably due to human mediated translocation of problem monkeys. Human mediated transport of macaques adds an additional level of complexity to tacking malaria in human. This issue has implications for both the spread of primate as well as human specific malarias.

Utilization of multiple putatively neutral DNA markers for inferring evolutionary history of species population is considered to be the most robust approach. Molecular population genetic studies have been conducted in many species of Anopheles genus, but studies based on single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) data are still very scarce. Anopheles minimus is one of the principal malaria vectors of Southeast (SE) Asia including the Northeastern (NE) India. Although population genetic studies with mitochondrial genetic variation data have been utilized to infer phylogeography of the SE Asian populations of this species, limited information on the population structure and demography of Indian An. minimus is available. We herewith have developed multilocus nuclear genetic approach with SNP markers located in X chromosome of An. minimus in eight Indian and two SE Asian population samples (121 individual mosquitoes in total) to infer population history and test several hypotheses on the phylogeography of this species. While the Thai population sample of An. minimus presented the highest nucleotide diversity, majority of the Indian samples were also fairly diverse. In general, An. minimus populations were moderately substructured in the distribution range covering SE Asia and NE India, largely falling under three distinct genetic clusters. Moreover, demographic expansion events could be detected in the majority of the presently studied populations of An. minimus. Additional DNA sequencing of the mitochondrial COII region in a subset of the samples (40 individual mosquitoes) corroborated the existing hypothesis of Indian An. minimus falling under the earlier reported mitochondrial lineage B.

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