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MBE Advance Access published online on May 18, 2005
Molecular Biology and Evolution, doi:10.1093/molbev/msi168
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© The Author 2005. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oupjournals.org
Accepted May 12, 2005

Research Article

Mitochondrial Genome Sequences Support Ancient Population Expansion in Plasmodium vivax

Somchai Jongwutiwes 1, Chaturong Putaporntip 2, Takuya Iwasaki 3, Marcelo U. Ferreira 4, Hiroji Kanbara 5, and Austin L. Hughes 6*

1 Department of Molecular Epidemiology, Institute of Tropical Medicine, Nagasaki University, Nagasaki 852-8523, Japan; Department of Parasitology, Faculty of Medicine, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok 10330, Thailand
2 Department of Parasitology, Faculty of Medicine, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok 10330, Thailand
3 Department of Laboratory Investigation, Institute of Tropical Medicine, Nagasaki University, Nagasaki 852-8523, Japan
4 Departamento de Parasitologia, Instituto de Ciências Biomédicas da Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo 05508-900, Brazil
5 Department of Protozoology, Institute of Tropical Medicine, Nagasaki University, Nagasaki 852-8523, Japan
6 Department of Biological Sciences, University of South Carolina, Columbia SC 29208, USA

* To whom correspondence should be addressed.
Austin L. Hughes, E-mail: Austin{at}biol.sc.edu


  Abstract

Examination of nucleotide diversity in 106 mitochondrial genomes of the most geographically widespread human malaria parasite, Plasmodium vivax, revealed a level of diversity similar to, but slightly higher than, that seen in the virulent human malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum. The pairwise distribution of nucleotide differences among mitochondrial genome sequences supported the hypothesis that both of these parasites underwent ancient population expansions. We estimated the age of the most recent common ancestor (MRCA) of the mitochondrial genomes of both P. vivax and P. falciparum at around 200,000-300,000 years ago. This is close to previous estimates of the time of the human mitochondrial MRCA and the origin of modern Homo sapiens, consistent with the hypothesis that both of these Plasmodium species were parasites of the hominid lineage before the origin of modern Homo sapiens and that their population expansion coincided with the population expansion of their host.


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