Title
Evidence of a recent bottleneck in plasmodium falciparum populations on the honduran–nicaraguan border
Date Issued
01 November 2021
Access level
open access
Resource Type
journal article
Author(s)
Pinto A.
Archaga O.
Mejía Á.
Escober L.
Henríquez J.
Montoya A.
Fontecha G.
Naval Medical Research
Publisher(s)
MDPI
Abstract
The countries of Central America and the island of Hispaniola have set the goal of elimi-nating malaria in less than a decade. Although efforts to reduce the malaria burden in the region have been successful, there has been an alarming increase in cases in the Nicaraguan Moskitia since 2014. The continuous decrease in cases between 2000 and 2014, followed by a rapid expansion from 2015 to the present, has generated a potential bottleneck effect in the populations of Plasmodium spp. Consequently, this study aimed to evaluate the genetic diversity of P. falciparum and the decrease in allelic richness in this population. The polymorphic regions of the pfmsp-1 and pfmsp-2 genes of patients with falciparum malaria from Honduras and Nicaragua were analyzed using nested PCR and sequencing. Most of the samples were classified into the K1 allelic subfamily of the pfmsp-1 gene and into the 3D7 subfamily of the pfmsp-2 gene. Despite the low genetic diversity found, more than half of the samples presented a polyclonal K1/RO33 haplotype. No sequence polymorphisms were found within each allelic subfamily. This study describes a notable decrease in the genetic diversity of P. falciparum in the Moskitia region after a bottleneck phenomenon. These results will be useful for future epidemiological investigations and the monitoring of malaria transmission in Central America.
Volume
10
Issue
11
Language
English
OCDE Knowledge area
Parasitología Medicina tropical
Scopus EID
2-s2.0-85118747517
Source
Pathogens
ISSN of the container
20760817
Sponsor(s)
Funding: Funding for this study was provided by the Genetic Research Center, CIG-UNAH, and by the Armed Forces Health Surveillance Division (AFHSD) and its Global Emerging Infections Surveillance and Response (GEIS) Section (P0144_20_N6_01, 2020-2021).
Sources of information: Directorio de Producción Científica Scopus