Structural diversity, natural selection and intragenic recombination in the Plasmodium vivax merozoite surface protein 9 locus in Thailand.

Structural diversity, natural selection and intragenic recombination in the Plasmodium vivax merozoite surface protein 9 locus in Thailand. Infect Genet Evol. 2020 Jul 22;:104467 Authors: Songsaigath S, Putaporntip C, Kuamsab N, Jongwutiwes S Abstract The merozoite surface protein 9 (MSP9) of malarial parasite forms co-ligand complex with the 19 kDa fragment of merozoite surface protein 1 (MSP1) prior to erythrocyte invasion. Interruption of this process could hamper subsequent asexual erythrocytic development of malaria parasites; therefore, these proteins are considered potential vaccine candidates. In Plasmodium vivax, MSP9 (PvMSP9) contains both conserved and polymorphic repetitive domains that were immunogenic upon natural malaria exposure and conferred protection in vaccination studies in animal models. To investigate the extent of sequence diversity at this locus, 104 P. vivax isolates from 4 major malaria endemic areas of Thailand were analyzed. Results revealed that pvmsp9 contained 3 repeat domains (R1-R3) flanked by conserved domains. Repeat domains exhibit extensive sequence and length variation, in which 14, 39 and 16 haplotypes for domains R1-R3, respectively, circulated in this country. Sequence diversity in pvmsp9 among P. vivax isolates from each endemic area displayed population structure. The extent of sequence diversity in pvmsp9 isolates from the provinces of Tak, Chanthaburi, Ubon Ratchathani and Prachuap Khir...
Source: Infection, Genetics and Evolution - Category: Genetics & Stem Cells Authors: Tags: Infect Genet Evol Source Type: research