Genetic Diversity and Clustering of the Rhoptry Associated Protein-1 of Plasmodium knowlesi from Peninsular Malaysia and Malaysian Borneo

The Korean Journal of Parasitology

article

Ummi Wahidah Azlan¹  Yee Ling Lau¹  Mun Yik Fong¹ 

[1] Department of Parasitology, Faculty of Medicine, Universiti Malaya

关键词: Plasmodium knowlesi;    rhoptry associated protein-1;    genetic diversity;   

DOI  :  10.3347/kjp.2022.60.6.393

学科分类：生物科学（综合）

来源: The Korean Society for Parasitology

【 摘 要 】

Human infection with simian malaria Plasmodium knowlesi is a cause for concern in Southeast Asian countries, especially in Malaysia. A previous study on Peninsular Malaysia P. knowlesi rhoptry associated protein-1 (PkRAP1) gene has discovered the existence of dimorphism. In this study, genetic analysis of PkRAP1 in a larger number of P. knowlesi samples from Malaysian Borneo was conducted. The PkRAP1 of these P. knowlesi isolates was PCR-amplified and sequenced. The newly obtained PkRAP1 gene sequences (n=34) were combined with those from the previous study (n=26) and analysed for polymorphism and natural selection. Sequence analysis revealed a higher genetic diversity of PkRAP1 compared to the previous study. Exon II of the gene had higher diversity (π=0.0172) than exon I (π=0.0128). The diversity of the total coding region (π=0.0167) was much higher than those of RAP1 orthologues such as PfRAP-1 (π=0.0041) and PvRAP1 (π=0.00088). Z-test results indicated that the gene was under purifying selection. Phylogenetic tree and haplotype network showed distinct clustering of Peninsular Malaysia and Malaysian Borneo PkRAP1 haplotypes. This geographical-based clustering of PkRAP1 haplotypes provides further evidence of the dimorphism of the gene and possible existence of 2 distinct P. knowlesi lineages in Malaysia.

【 授权许可】

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