Cell Host & Microbe
Volume 27, Issue 1, 8 January 2020, Pages 93-103.e4
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Article
Co-transmission of Related Malaria Parasite Lineages Shapes Within-Host Parasite Diversity

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chom.2019.12.001Get rights and content
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Highlights

  • 485 single genome sequences reveal patterns of relatedness within malaria infections

  • Co-transmission of related parasites is more widespread than superinfection

  • Serial passage of complex infections without loss of diversity is commonplace

  • Reconstruction of a single meiosis reveals the extent of inbreeding in mosquitoes

Summary

In high-transmission regions, we expect parasite lineages within complex malaria infections to be unrelated due to parasite inoculations from different mosquitoes. This project was designed to test this prediction. We generated 485 single-cell genome sequences from fifteen P. falciparum malaria patients from Chikhwawa, Malawi—an area of intense transmission. Patients harbored up to seventeen unique parasite lineages. Surprisingly, parasite lineages within infections tend to be closely related, suggesting that superinfection by repeated mosquito bites is rarer than co-transmission of parasites from a single mosquito. Both closely and distantly related parasites comprise an infection, suggesting sequential transmission of complex infections between multiple hosts. We identified tetrads and reconstructed parental haplotypes, which revealed the inbred ancestry of infections and non-Mendelian inheritance. Our analysis suggests strong barriers to secondary infection and outbreeding amongst malaria parasites from a high transmission setting, providing unexpected insights into the biology and transmission of malaria.

Keywords

malaria
transmission
genomics
genetics
single cell sequencing
population structure

Cited by (0)

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Present address: Malaria Research and Reference Reagent Resource Center (MR4), BEI Resources, ATCC, Manassas, VA, USA

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Lead Contact