Merozoite surface protein-3α is a reliable marker for population genetic analysis of <it>Plasmodium vivax</it>

• Main Authors: Zakeri Sedigheh, Barjesteh Hesam, Djadid Navid D
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: BMC 2006-07-01
• Series: Malaria Journal
• Online Access: http://www.malariajournal.com/content/5/1/53

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The knowledge on population structure of the parasite isolates has contributed greatly to understanding the dynamics of the disease transmission for designing and evaluating malaria vaccines as well as for drug applications. <it>msp-1 </it>and <it>msp-3α </it>genes have been used as a genetic marker in population studies of <it>Plasmodium vivax </it>isolates. In this study, <it>msp-3α </it>was compared and assessed with <it>msp-1 </it>marker in order to find whether <it>msp-3α </it>is a reliable genetic marker for <it>P. vivax </it>population studies.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>This comparative study was designed and carried out as the first assessment of diversity in <it>Pvmsp-3α </it>gene by polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) in the 50 northern and 94 southern <it>P. vivax </it>isolates from Iran, which had been analysed before for <it>msp-1 </it>gene.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Three allele size as, Type A (1.8 kb), Type B (1.5 kb) and Type C (1.2 kb) have been detected among both northern and southern isolates based on PCR results. Type C (70%) and Type A (68.7%) were the predominant fragments among northern and southern parasites, respectively. 99 distinct <it>Pvmsp</it>-3α fragments defined by the size were detected in the 94 southern samples by PCR analysis. However, no mixed genotype infections have been detected among northern isolates. Based on restriction pattern from digestion with <it>Hha I </it>and <it>Alu I </it>12 and 49 distinct allelic variants have been detected among 50 northern and 94 southern isolates. However, based <it>on msp-1 </it>gene, 30 distinct variants identified in all 146-sequenced Iranian <it>P. vivax </it>isolate.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The results suggested that PCR-RFLP on <it>msp-3α </it>gene is an adequate, applicable and easily used technique for molecular epidemiology studies of <it>P. vivax </it>isolates without the need for further sequencing analysis.</p>