Does biased gene conversion influence polymorphism in the circumsporozoite protein-encoding gene of Plasmodium vivax?

Abstract

Variation between North Korean and Latin American isolates in the circumsporozoite (CS) protein encoding gene of the human malaria parasite Plasmodium vivax was studied. Polymorphic positions are confined to the central tandemly repeated sequences. Nucleotide substitutions in the tandem repeats produce variants; these substituted positions within the repeat array tend to be conserved between genes. The North Korean CS gene has a short insertion after the repeats encoding a 4-amino acid repeat (Ala-Gly-Gly-Asn) not found in the New World P. vivax genes. This sequence is found both flanking and within the tandem repeats of the CS genes of several strains of the Southeast Asian simian malaria parasite, Plasmodium cynomolgi. The intraspecific conservation of positions of variants within tandem repeat arrays and the interspecific conservation of probably ancestral repeat motifs at the end of these arrays are consistent with the occurrence of nonreciprocal genetic exchanges between the tandem repeats of these genes. However, a striking asymmetry in strand nucleotide composition within the tandem repeats of all CS genes leads us to suggest that biased correction of heteroduplexes formed during recombination plays a role in the evolution of these genes.