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Comparative Study
. 2008 Jul 30:8:223.
doi: 10.1186/1471-2148-8-223.

Selection shapes malaria genomes and drives divergence between pathogens infecting hominids versus rodents

Franck Prugnolle  1 , Kate McGee, Jon Keebler, Philip Awadalla
Affiliations
Comparative Study

Selection shapes malaria genomes and drives divergence between pathogens infecting hominids versus rodents

Franck Prugnolle et al. BMC Evol Biol. .

Abstract

Background: Malaria kills more people worldwide than all inherited human genetic disorders combined. To characterize how the parasites causing this disease adapt to different host environments, we compared the evolutionary genomics of two distinct groups of malaria pathogens in order to identify critical properties associated with infection of different hosts: those parasites infecting hominids (Plasmodium falciparum and P. reichenowi) versus parasites infecting rodent hosts (P. yoelii yoelii, P. berghei, and P. chabaudi). Adaptation by the parasite to its host is likely highly critical to the evolution of these species.

Results: Our comparative analysis suggests that patterns of molecular evolution in the hominid parasite lineage are generally similar to those of the rodent lineage but distinct in several aspects. The most rapidly evolving genes in both lineages are those involved in host-parasite interactions as well as those that show the lowest expression levels. However, we found that, similar to their respective mammal host lineages, parasite genomes infecting hominids are generally less constrained, evolving at faster rates, and accumulating more deleterious mutations than those infecting murids, which may reflect an historical lower effective size of the hominid lineage and relaxed host-driven selective pressures.

Conclusion: Our study highlights for the first time the differences in trends and rates of evolution in Plasmodium lineages infecting different hosts and emphasizes the potential importance of the variation in effective size between lineages to explain variation in selective constraints among genomes.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Schematic representation of the phylogenetic relationship between hominid and rodent Plasmodium lineages (adapted from[27]).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Evolutionary rates (dN/dS) and Gene Ontology Processes in hominid (blue bars) and rodent (red bars) Plasmodium lineages. The numbers between parentheses are the number of genes belonging to each group. The first number corresponds to the hominid lineage; the second corresponds to the rodent one.
Figure 3
Figure 3
A, B. Evolutionary rates (dN/dS) and timing of expression. A. for all genes expressed at one stage (but that may also be expressed at another stage). B. for the genes that are only expressed at one particular stage. Blue squares: hominid lineage; Red squares: rodent lineage.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Substitution rates (dN/dS, dN, dS) and breadth of expression in hominid and rodent lineages.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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