Comparative Genomics of Plasmodium vivax: Insights into Duffy Negative Erythrocyte Invasion (1271-PV-ET-LO)

Vivax malaria is the most geographically widespread human malaria, causing tremendous suffering and major negative effects on economic productivity. African blacks or people with African ancestry are thought to be protected from Plasmodium vivax  infection because their lack of Duffy antigen expression on the surface of the erythrocytes renders  P. vivax  unable to invade the erythrocytes. While recent studies challenge this conventional wisdom, raising the possibility that that some lineages of  P. vivax  may have evolved to use receptors other than Duffy for erythrocyte invasion, there is scarce evidence to this notion and the intrinsic invasion mechanism is largely unknown.

This project aims to identify genetic variants of Plasmodium vivax  between Duffy positive and Duffy negative individuals by whole genome sequencing. This study hypothesizes that some P. vivax  strains could have evolved the ability to infect Duffy negative Africans and these parasites may become an emerging cause of severe disease across Africa. This research will provide genomic information of  P. vivax from endemic Africa and identify alternative erythrocyte-binding ligands that allow P. vivax  to infect Duffy negative individuals.