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Genetic Distance in Housekeeping Genes Between Plasmodium falciparum and Plasmodium reichenowi and Within P. falciparum

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Abstract

The time to the most recent common ancestor of the extant populations of Plasmodium falciparum is controversial. The controversy primarily stems from the limited availability of sequences from Plasmodium reichenowi, a chimpanzee malaria parasite closely related to P. falciparum. Since the rate of nucleotide substitution differs in different loci and DNA regions, the estimation of genetic distance between P. falciparum and P. reichenowi should be performed using orthologous sequences that are evolving neutrally. Here, we obtained full-length sequences of two housekeeping genes, sarcoplasmic and endoplasmic reticulum Ca2+-ATPase (serca) and lactate dehydrogenase (ldh), from 11 isolates of P. falciparum and 1 isolate of P. reichenowi and estimate the interspecific genetic distance (divergence) between the two species and intraspecific genetic distance (polymorphism) within P. falciparum. Interspecific distance and intraspecific distance at synonymous sites of interspecies-conserved regions of serca and ldh were 0.0672 ± 0.0088 and 0.0011 ± 0.0007, respectively, using the Nei and Gojobori method. Based on the ratio of interspecific distance to intraspecific distance, the time to the most recent common ancestor of P. falciparum was estimated to be (8.30 ± 5.40) × 104 and (11.62 ± 7.56) × 104 years ago, assuming the divergence time of the two parasite species to be 5 and 7 million years ago, respectively.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Dr. T. Mitamura for DNA of the P. falciparum Dd2 strain. This work was supported by a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research on Priority Areas from the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (No. 14021125) and a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C) from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (No. 15590377). A. Escalante is supported by a grant from NIH.

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Author notes

  1. Altaf A. Lal

    Present address: Health Attaché and HHS Regional Representative for South Asia, U.S. Embassy, New Delhi, India

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory of Biology, faculty of Engineering, Osaka Institute of Technology, Ohmiya 5-16-1, Asahi-ku, Osaka, 535-8585, Japan

    Kazuyuki Tanabe & Naoko Sakihama

  2. Laboratory of Mathematics, Faculty of Engineering, Osaka Institute of Technology, Osaka, Japan

    Tetsuya Hattori

  3. Division of Infection & Immunity, Institute of Biomedical & Life Sciences, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK

    Lisa Ranford-Cartwright

  4. Division of Parasitic Diseases, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA, 30333, USA

    Ira Goldman, Ananias A. Escalante & Altaf A. Lal

  5. Department of Biology, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, 30322, USA

    Ananias A. Escalante

  6. Instituto Venezolano de Investigaciones Cientificas, Caracas, Venezuela

    Ananias A. Escalante

Authors
  1. Kazuyuki Tanabe
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  2. Naoko Sakihama
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  3. Tetsuya Hattori
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  4. Lisa Ranford-Cartwright
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  5. Ira Goldman
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  6. Ananias A. Escalante
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  7. Altaf A. Lal
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Correspondence to Kazuyuki Tanabe.

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Reviewing Editor: Dr. Martin Kreitman

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Tanabe, K., Sakihama, N., Hattori, T. et al. Genetic Distance in Housekeeping Genes Between Plasmodium falciparum and Plasmodium reichenowi and Within P. falciparum. J Mol Evol 59, 687–694 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00239-004-2662-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00239-004-2662-3

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