Publication: Genetic diversity in new members of the reticulocyte binding protein family in Thai plasmodium vivax isolate
Issued Date
2012
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eng
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Mahidol university
Bibliographic Citation
Plos One. Vol.7, No.3 (2012), e32105
Suggested Citation
Varakorn Kosaisavee, Usa Lek-Uthai, Rossarin Suwanarusk, Anne Charlotte Gruner, Bruce Russell, Francois Nosten, Laurent Renia, Georges Snounou, อุษา เล็กอุทัย Genetic diversity in new members of the reticulocyte binding protein family in Thai plasmodium vivax isolate. Plos One. Vol.7, No.3 (2012), e32105. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0032105.t001, 10.1371/journal.pone.0032105.t002 Retrieved from: https://repository.li.mahidol.ac.th/handle/20.500.14594/2552
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Title
Genetic diversity in new members of the reticulocyte binding protein family in Thai plasmodium vivax isolate
Abstract
Background : Plasmodium vivax merozoites specifically invade reticulocytes. Until recently, two reticulocyte-binding proteins
(Pvrbp1 and Pvrbp2) expressed at the apical pole of the P. vivax merozoite were considered to be involved in reticulocyte
recognition. The genome sequence recently obtained for the Salvador I (Sal-I) strain of P. vivax revealed additional genes in
this family, and in particular Pvrbp2a, Pvrbp2b (Pvrbp2 has been renamed as Pvrbp2c) and two pseudogenes Pvrbp2d and
Pvrbp3. It had been previously found that Pvrbp2c is substantially more polymorphic than Pvrbp1. The primary goal of this
study was to ascertain the level of polymorphism of these new genes.
Methodology/Principal Findings : The sequence of the Pvrbp2a, Pvrbp2b, Pvrbp2d and Pvrbp3 genes were obtained by
amplification/cloning using DNA purified from four isolates collected from patients that acquired the infection in the four
cardinal regions of Thailand (west, north, south and east). An additional seven isolates from western Thailand were analyzed
for gene copy number variation. There were significant polymorphisms exhibited by these genes (compared to the
reference Sal-I strain) with the ratio of mutations leading to a non-synonymous or synonymous amino acid change close to
3:1 for Pvrbp2a and Pvrbp2b. Although the degree of polymorphism exhibited by these two genes was higher than that of
Pvrbp1, it did not reach the exceptional diversity noted for Pvrbp2c. It was interesting to note that variations in the copy
number of Pvrbp2a and Pvrbp2b occurred in some isolates.
Conclusions/Significance : The evolution of different members of the Pvrbp2 family and their relatively high degree of
polymorphism suggests that the proteins encoded by these genes are important for parasite survival and are under
immune selection. Our data also shows that there are highly conserved regions in rbp2a and rbp2b, which might provide
suitable targets for future vaccine development against the blood stage of P. vivax.