In the present study, we investigated the genetic diversity of
Plasmodium vivax
metacaspase 1 (
Pv
MCA1) catalytic domain in two municipalities of the main malaria hotspot in Brazil, i.e., the Juruá Valley, and observed complete sequence identity among all
P. vivax
field isolates and the Sal-1 reference strain. Analysis of
Pv
MCA1 catalytic domain in different
P. vivax
genomic sequences publicly available also revealed a high degree of conservation worldwide, with very few amino acid substitutions that were not related to putative histidine and cysteine catalytic residues, whose involvement with the active site of protease was herein predicted by molecular modeling. The genetic conservation presented by
Pv
MCA1 may contribute to its eligibility as a druggable target candidate in vivax malaria.
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