Plasmodium vivax genome variation

Plasmodium vivax is a major cause of morbidity in many tropical regions. The partner studies that make up this community project are primarily concerned with understanding the population genetics and identifying the genetic causes of antimalarial drug-resistance in P.vivax, which is becoming a major public health concern.  

MalariaGEN provides high-throughput sequencing and informatics to allow our research partners to investigate such questions at the level of the whole genome, and in the process of supporting partner studies, we are starting to construct a catalog of P. vivax genome variation as a scientific resource for the malaria research community as a whole.   

These data will be valuable in addressing a range of scientific questions other than drug resistance. Although P. vivax causes much less mortality than P. falciparum, there is growing recognition that it can sometimes cause severe complications, raising the question of whether there are parasite genetic factors that cause some strains of P. vivax to be more virulent than others. There is also much interest in whether there are genetic types of parasite that can overcome the resistance to P. vivax infection possessed by African populations due to the Duffy negative blood group.

Partner studies

• Darwin, Australia (Ric Price, Sarah Auburn)
• Colombo, Sri Lanka (Nadira Karunaweera)
• Madang, Papua New Guinea (Ivo Mueller, Peter Siba)
• Mae Sot, Thailand (Francois Nosten)
• Sao Paulo, Brazil (Marcelo Ferreira)