Last Updated: 13/02/2024
Population genomics of Plasmodium vivax: how and why do the parasites of the Amazon and the Atlantic forest diverge?
Objectives
*Original title in Portuguese: Genômica populacional de Plasmodium vivax: como e por que divergem os parasitos da amazônia e da mata atlântica?
This project proposes a population genomic approach of P. vivax, with 42 new genomes of high quality, to compare these lines of parasites that circulate in endemic discontinuous regions of Brazil with each other and with global samples of the parasite, reveal common evolutionary patterns, and characterize factors that promote differentiation between them, which may be related to the adaptation of parasites to different species of Anopheles and to the ability to parasitize humans and nonhuman primates.
Plasmodium vivax, a species currently responsible for 88% of Brazil’s malaria cases, originated in Africa and was introduced in the Americas primarily through transatlantic slave trade between the 16th and 19th centuries. In Brazil, several strains of the parasite reached the interior of the country, especially the Amazon, where they are transmitted between humans by anophelines of the subgenus Nyssorhynchus. A limited number of strains, however, were restricted to coastal regions covered by Atlantic Forest, where they are transmitted by anophelines of the subgenus Kerteszia between humans and nonhuman primates. The levels of genetic divergence between Amazonian and Atlantic Forest lineages remain unexplored on a genomic scale.
Feb 2019 — Feb 2022
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