Mark D. PrestonSusana CampinoSamuel A. AssefaDiego F. EcheverryHarold OchollaAlfred Amambua-NgwaLindsay B. StewartDavid J. ConwaySteffen BorrmannPascal MichonIssaka ZongoJean Bosco OuédraogoAbdoulaye A. DjimdeOgobara K. DoumboFrancois NostenArnab PainTeun BousemaChris J. DrakeleyRick M. FairhurstColin J. SutherlandCally RoperTaane G. ClarkLondon School of Hygiene & Tropical MedicineWellcome Trust Sanger InstitutePurdue UniversityInternational Center for Medical Research and TrainingUniversity of MalawiMalawi-Liverpool-Wellcome Trust Clinical Research ProgrammeLiverpool School of Tropical MedicineMedical Research Council Laboratories GambiaWellcome Trust Research Laboratories NairobiUniversitat TubingenDivine Word UniversityInstitut de Recherche en Sciences de la SantéUniversity of Bamako Faculty of Medicine, Pharmacy and Odonto-StomatologyNuffield Department of Clinical MedicineMahidol UniversityKing Abdullah University of Science and TechnologyNational Institutes of Health, Bethesda2018-11-092018-11-092014-06-13Nature Communications. Vol.5, (2014)204117232-s2.0-84902504071https://repository.li.mahidol.ac.th/handle/20.500.14594/33256Malaria is a major public health problem that is actively being addressed in a global eradication campaign. Increased population mobility through international air travel has elevated the risk of re-introducing parasites to elimination areas and dispersing drug-resistant parasites to new regions. A simple genetic marker that quickly and accurately identifies the geographic origin of infections would be a valuable public health tool for locating the source of imported outbreaks. Here we analyse the mitochondrion and apicoplast genomes of 711 Plasmodium falciparum isolates from 14 countries, and find evidence that they are non-recombining and co-inherited. The high degree of linkage produces a panel of relatively few single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) that is geographically informative. We design a 23-SNP barcode that is highly predictive (∼92%) and easily adapted to aid case management in the field and survey parasite migration worldwide. © 2014 Macmillan Publishers Limited. All rights reserved.Mahidol UniversityBiochemistry, Genetics and Molecular BiologyChemistryPhysics and AstronomyArticleSCOPUS10.1038/ncomms5052