Differences in genetic population structures of Plasmodium falciparum isolates from patients along Thai-Myanmar border with severe or uncomplicated malaria

doi:10.1186/1475-2875-7-212

Malaria Journal

Volume 7

Viewing options:

Abstract
Full text
PDF (263KB)
Additional files

Associated material:

Related literature:

Articles citing this article
on Google Scholar
on ISI Web of Science
on PubMed Central
Other articles by authors
on Google Scholar

Susomboon P
Iwagami M
Tangpukdee N
Krusood S
Looareesuwan S
Kano S

on PubMed

Susomboon P
Iwagami M
Tangpukdee N
Krusood S
Looareesuwan S
Kano S
Related articles/pages
on Google

on Google Scholar

on PubMed

Tools:

Post to:

Research

Differences in genetic population structures of Plasmodium falciparum isolates from patients along Thai-Myanmar border with severe or uncomplicated malaria

Pannapa Susomboon¹^,2 , Moritoshi Iwagami¹ , Noppadon Tangpukdee² , Srivicha Krusood² , Sornchai Looareesuwan²^{^} and Shigeyuki Kano¹

¹Department of Appropriate Technology Development and Transfer Research Institute, International Medical Center of Japan, 1-21-1Toyama, Shinjuku, Tokyo 162-8665, Japan

²Faculty of Tropical Medicine, Mahidol University, 420/6 Ratchawithi Rd, Bangkok 10400, Thailand

author email corresponding author email^Deceased

Malaria Journal 2008, 7:212doi:10.1186/1475-2875-7-212


Published:	21 October 2008

Abstract

Background

There have been many reports on the population genetic structures of Plasmodium falciparum from different endemic regions, but few studies have examined the characteristics of isolates from patients with different clinical outcomes. The population genetic structures of P. falciparum isolates from patients with either severe or uncomplicated malaria were examined.

Methods

Twelve microsatellite DNA loci from P. falciparum were used to assess the population genetic structures of 50 isolates (i.e., 25 isolates from patients with severe malaria and 25 from patients with uncomplicated malaria) collected in the Thai-Myanmar border area between 2002 and 2005.

Results

Genetic diversity and effective population sizes were greater in the uncomplicated malaria group than in the severe malaria group. Evidence of genetic bottlenecks was not observed in either group. Strong linkage disequilibrium was observed in the uncomplicated malaria group. The groups demonstrated significant genetic differentiation (P < 0.05), and allele frequencies for 3 of the 12 microsatellite loci differed significantly between the two groups.

Conclusion

These findings suggest that the genetic structure of P. falciparum populations in patients with severe malaria differs from that in patients with uncomplicated malaria. The microsatellite loci used in this study were presumably unrelated to antigenic features of the parasites, but, these findings suggest that some loci may influence the clinical outcome of malaria.