Journal article
Evidence of strain structure in Plasmodium falciparum var gene repertoires in children from Gabon, West Africa
Karen P Day, Yael Artzy-Randrup, Kathryn E Tiedje, Virginie Rougeron, Donald S Chen, Thomas S Rask, Mary M Rorick, Florence Migot-Nabias, Philippe Deloron, Adrian JF Luty, Mercedes Pascual
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America | National Academy of Sciences | Published : 2017
Abstract
Existing theory on competition for hosts between pathogen strains has proposed that immune selection can lead to the maintenance of strain structure consisting of discrete, weakly overlapping antigenic repertoires. This prediction of strain theory has conceptual overlap with fundamental ideas in ecology on niche partitioning and limiting similarity between coexisting species in an ecosystem, which oppose the hypothesis of neutral coexistence. For Plasmodium falciparum, strain theory has been specifically proposed in relation to the major surface antigen of the blood stage, known as PfEMP1 and encoded by the multicopy multigene family known as the var genes. Deep sampling of the DBLα domain o..
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Awarded by Program on the Ecology and Evolution of Infectious Diseases
Awarded by National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, National Institutes of Health
Awarded by FOGARTY INTERNATIONAL CENTER
Awarded by NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES
Funding Acknowledgements
We are grateful to the children and their families of Bakoumba for their willingness to participate in this study. We thank Justice Mayombo, Faustin Lekoulou, and Herbert Moukana for their technical expertise and assistance. We thank Jean Bourgeais (Société d’Exploitation des Produits Alimentaires) for logistical support in Bakoumba. Finally, we thank Michael Duffy for helpful input related to this work and to everyone involved for their continued patience as this research was disrupted due to Hurricane Sandy (New York, NY; October 29, 2012). M.P. is an Investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. This research was supported by Fogarty International Center at National Institutes of Health, Program on the Ecology and Evolution of Infectious Diseases Grant R01-TW009670 and National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, National Institutes of Health Grant R01-AI084156.