Local Adaptation and Vector-Mediated Population Structure in Plasmodium vivax Malaria

Abstract

Plasmodium vivax in southern Mexico exhibits different infectivities to 2 local mosquito vectors, Anopheles pseudopunctipennis and Anopheles albimanus. Previous work has tied these differences in mosquito infectivity to variation in the central repeat motif of the malaria parasite's circumsporozoite (csp) gene, but subsequent studies have questioned this view. Here we present evidence that P. vivax in southern Mexico comprised 3 genetic populations whose distributions largely mirror those of the 2 mosquito vectors. Additionally, laboratory colony feeding experiments indicate that parasite populations are most compatible with sympatric mosquito species. Our results suggest that reciprocal selection between malaria parasites and mosquito vectors has led to local adaptation of the parasite. Adaptation to local vectors may play an important role in generating population structure in Plasmodium. A better understanding of coevolutionary dynamics between sympatric mosquitoes and parasites will facilitate the identification of molecular mechanisms relevant to disease transmission in nature and provide crucial information for malaria control.

A closer look at multiple-clone Plasmodium vivax infections: detection methods, prevalence and consequences

“…Similar results were recently found in an extensive study of microsatellite variation of P. vivax isolates from Mexico (Joy et al 2008). Nevertheless, detection of parasite clones co-infecting the same host that differ at only one of the 10 or even 20 microsatellite loci analyzed is not necessarily artificial.…”

“…The increasing virulence of P. vivax strains, as demonstrated by numer- Porto et al 1992 ;b: Kolakovich et al 1996;c: Bruce et al 1999;d: Putaporntip et al 2000;e: Cui et al 2003;f: Bonilla et al 2006;g: Kim et al 2006;h: Prajapati et al 2006;i: Inwong et al 2007a;j: Inwong et al 2007b;k: Ferreira et al 2007;l: Gunasekera et al 2007; m: Karunaweera et al 2007; n: Joy et al 2008; CSP: circumsporozoite protein; GAM1: gametocyte antigen 1; MSP1: merozoite surface protein 1; MSP3α: merozoite surface protein 3α.…”

High Genetic Diversity of Plasmodium vivax on the North Coast of Papua New Guinea

“…4 Mapping the local and global population structure of P. vivax is essential both before and after the rollout of intervention measures and when establishing goals for elimination, 5,6 as parasite populations can differ widely between locations due to vector prevalence, host genetics, and a variety of environmental factors. [7][8][9][10] Population genetic surveys to determine the diversity of P. vivax parasites within a given human population can reveal insights into the potential resilience of the parasite population to interventions.…”

Recurrent Parasitemias and Population Dynamics of Plasmodium vivax Polymorphisms in Rural Amazonia

“…With the growing use of microsatellite markers in epidemiologic studies 16,[33][34][35] and clinical trials, 36 it is essential to define the minimal number of markers that would accurately estimate the overall genetic diversity and proportion of multiple-clone infections in P. vivax populations without incurring unnecessary cost. To examine how many markers are needed to score most or all haplotypes and multiple-clone infections found in Cohort B, we first ranked microsatellite loci according to their H E values, shown in Table 1 .…”