Genetic diversity and clustering of the rhoptry associated Protein-1 of Plasmodium knowlesi from Peninsular Malaysia and Malaysian Borneo
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
12-1-2022
Abstract
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 se-quenced. 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 (n= 0.0172) than exon I (n= 0.0128). The diversity of the total coding region (n= 0.0167) was much higher than those of RAP1 orthologues such as PfRAP-1 (n= 0.0041) and PvRAP1 (n= 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.
Keywords
Plasmodium knowlesi, Rhoptry associated protein-1, Genetic diversity
Divisions
Parasit
Funders
Ministry of Education, Malaysia (Grant No: LRGS/1/2018/UM/01/1/1)
Publication Title
Korean Journal of Parasitology
Volume
60
Issue
6
Publisher
Korean Society of Parasitology
Publisher Location
DEPT PARASITOLOGY, SEOUL, 00000, SOUTH KOREA