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MBE Advance Access originally published online on April 2, 2008
Molecular Biology and Evolution 2008 25(6):1245-1252; doi:10.1093/molbev/msn073
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Published by Oxford University Press 2008.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/uk/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Research Articles

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

Deirdre A. Joy*, Lilia Gonzalez-Ceron{dagger}, Jane M. Carlton{ddagger}, Amy Gueye§, Michael Fay||, Thomas F. McCutchan* and Xin-zhuan Su*

* Laboratory of Malaria and Vector Research, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD
{dagger} Instituto Nacional de Salud Publica, Chiapas State, Mexico
{ddagger} Department of Medical Parasitology, New York University School of Medicine
§ Hood College
|| Biostatistics Research Branch, Division of Clinical Research, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD

E-mail: djoy{at}mail.nih.gov

Accepted for publication March 23, 2008.

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.

Key Words: malaria • Plasmodium vivax • microsatellites • coevolution

Sarah Tishkoff, Associate Editor


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