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. 2007 Oct 25:6:140.
doi: 10.1186/1475-2875-6-140.

Evaluation of the intra- and inter-specific genetic variability of Plasmodium lactate dehydrogenase

Arthur M Talman  1 , Linda Duval, Eric Legrand, Véronique Hubert, Seiha Yen, David Bell, Jacques Le Bras, Frédéric Ariey, Sandrine Houze
Affiliations

Evaluation of the intra- and inter-specific genetic variability of Plasmodium lactate dehydrogenase

Arthur M Talman et al. Malar J. .

Abstract

Background: Malaria diagnosis is vital to efficient control programmes and the recent advent of malaria rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs) provides a reliable and simple diagnostic method. However a characterization of the efficiency of these tests and the proteins they detect is needed to maximize RDT sensitivity.

Methods: Plasmodial lactate dehydrogenase (pLDH) gene of wild isolates of the four human species of Plasmodium from a variety of malaria endemic settings were sequenced and analysed.

Results: No variation in nucleotide was found within Plasmodium falciparum, synonymous mutations were found for Plasmodium malariae and Plasmodium. vivax; and three different types of amino acid sequence were found for Plasmodium ovale. Conserved and variable regions were identified within each species.

Conclusion: The results indicate that antigen variability is unlikely to explain variability in performance of RDTs detecting pLDH from cases of P. falciparum, P. vivax or P. malariae malaria, but may contribute to poor detection of P. ovale.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Worldwide distribution of the isolate sequenced in the study, grouped by species. One dot corresponds to one isolate, in red the malaria endemic area.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Schematic representation of the 181 amino acid sequence variation (each different marks correspond to one amino acid change). F, F1, M, V, O1, O2, O, Y and C correspond to the sequence identified in the study (see result). The conserved regions of the Plasmodium pLDH gene for all species are highlighted in green.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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