Abstract
Malaria elimination strategies require surveillance of the parasite population for genetic changes that demand a public health response, such as new forms of drug resistance. Here we describe methods for the large-scale analysis of genetic variation in Plasmodium falciparum by deep sequencing of parasite DNA obtained from the blood of patients with malaria, either directly or after short-term culture. Analysis of 86,158 exonic single nucleotide polymorphisms that passed genotyping quality control in 227 samples from Africa, Asia and Oceania provides genome-wide estimates of allele frequency distribution, population structure and linkage disequilibrium. By comparing the genetic diversity of individual infections with that of the local parasite population, we derive a metric of within-host diversity that is related to the level of inbreeding in the population. An open-access web application has been established for the exploration of regional differences in allele frequency and of highly differentiated loci in the P.falciparum genome.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 375-379 |
| Number of pages | 5 |
| Journal | Nature |
| Volume | 487 |
| Issue number | 7407 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - 19 Jul 2012 |
| Externally published | Yes |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:Acknowledgements We thank G. Dougan and N. Day for support, and T. Anderson and M. Mackinnon for comments. The sequencing and analysis components of this study were supported by the Wellcome Trust through Sanger Institute core funding (077012/Z/05/Z; 098051) and a Strategic Award (090770/Z/09/Z); the Medical Research Council (MRC) through the MRC Centre for Genomics and Global Health (G0600718) and an MRC Professorship to D.P.K. (G19/9). Other parts of this study were partly supported by the Wellcome Trust including core support to the Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics (075491/Z/04; 090532/Z/09/Z); the Division of Intramural Research, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health; and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute International Scholarship (55005502) to A.D.
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- General