A fourth locus in the Plasmodium falciparum genome associated with sickle haemoglobin
Hamilton, W. L.; Band, G.; Aniweh, Y.; Asoala, V.; Drury, E.; Rockett, K. A.; Awandare, G. A.; Kwiatkowski, D. P.; Amenga-Etego, L. N.
Show abstract
Heterozygosity for sickle haemoglobin (HbS) confers protection against severe malaria caused by the parasite Plasmodium falciparum. Recent work suggests that this protective effect can depend on the parasite genotype. Here, we performed a genome-wide association analysis of P. falciparum against human {beta}-globin genotypes in a sample of 1,368 people with mild malaria in northern Ghana. We replicated the previously identified associations with HbS at two parasite loci. However, a newly identified locus within the serine/threonine kinase FIKK4.2, which we term Pfsa4, was also associated with HbS; this finding replicated in a published sample from Mali. The Pfsa1-4 mutations vary widely in frequencies across Africa, are absent from Asia, and are highly correlated with each-other across multiple populations. We found no strong associations with haemoglobin C. These findings add new complexity to the emerging picture of association between human and co-evolving malaria parasite genomes, suggesting new avenues for functional exploration.
Matching journals
The top 5 journals account for 50% of the predicted probability mass.
Similar papers in this journal
- Emergence of artemisinin-resistant Plasmodium falciparum with kelch13 C580Y mutations on the island of New Guinea 96%
- Plasmodium falciparum expresses fewer var genes at lower levels during asymptomatic dry season infections than clinical malaria cases 96%
- Symptomatic malaria enhances protection from reinfection with homologous Plasmodium falciparum parasites 94%
Similar papers in this journal
- Malaria surveillance reveals parasite relatedness, signatures of selection, and correlates of transmission across Senegal 97%
- Genetic surveillance of Plasmodium falciparum reveals rapid population changes following first-line treatment policy revisions in the Greater Mekong Subregion 96%
- The impact of malaria-protective red blood cell polymorphisms on parasite biomass in children with severe Plasmodium falciparum malaria 94%
Similar papers in this journal
- Sensitive, highly multiplexed sequencing of microhaplotypes from the Plasmodium falciparum heterozygome 97%
- A cohort study on the duration of Plasmodium falciparum infections during the dry season in The Gambia 95%
- Artemisinin Partial Resistance Mutations in Zanzibar and Tanzania Suggest Regional Spread and African Origins, 2023 95%
Similar papers in this journal
- Household clustering and seasonal genetic variation of Plasmodium falciparum at the community-level in The Gambia 96%
- Controlled Human Malaria Infection reveals that the Dantu blood group variant provides high level protection against uncomplicated malaria 96%
- Comparative transcriptomic analysis reveals translationally relevant processes in mouse models of malaria 94%
"Similar papers" are the closest papers from that journal in the model's embedding space. They show what the match is built on, but the ranking comes mostly from a classifier over the whole training set, not from these examples alone.