ArticlePLoS pathogens2010
On the diversity of malaria parasites in African apes and the origin of Plasmodium falciparum from Bonobos.
Article in PLoS pathogens, 2010. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 118 papers.
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Who cites it
118 citing papers in PubMed, 228 citations in OpenAlex.
- Hidden hematological, biochemical and immune costs of asymptomatic malaria infections in semi-wild chimpanzees.PLoS pathogens · 2026Article
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- New mitochondrial genomes of parasites belonging to the Leucocytozoon toddi and Haemoproteus nisi groups (Haemosporida, Apicomplexa).Parasites & vectors · 2026Article
- Hidden hematological, biochemical and immune costs of asymptomatic malaria infections in semi-wild chimpanzees.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Overview ofComparative medicine · 2024Review
- Origin of the human malaria parasite Plasmodium vivax.Trends in parasitology · 2024Review
- A new long-read mitochondrial-genome protocol (PacBio HiFi) for haemosporidian parasites: a tool for population and biodiversity studies.Malaria journal · 2024Article
- The Genome of Plasmodium gonderi: Insights into the Evolution of Human Malaria Parasites.Genome biology and evolution · 2024Article
- Prediction of malaria positivity using patients' demographic and environmental features and clinical symptoms to complement parasitological confirmation before treatment.Tropical diseases, travel medicine and vaccines · 2023Article
- Cancerogenic parasites in veterinary medicine: a narrative literature review.Infectious agents and cancer · 2023Review
- The ecology and epidemiology of malaria parasitism in wild chimpanzee reservoirs.Communications biology · 2022Article
- Repellent activity against Anopheles gambiae of the leaves of nesting trees in the Sebitoli chimpanzee community of Kibale National Park, Uganda.Malaria journal · 2022Article
- Why Plasmodium vivax and Plasmodium falciparum are so different? A tale of two clades and their species diversities.Malaria journal · 2022Review
- Evolutionary history of orangutan plasmodia revealed by phylogenetic analysis of complete mtDNA genomes and new biogeographical divergence dating calibration models.American journal of primatology · 2022Article
- Zoonotic origin of the human malaria parasite Plasmodium malariae from African apes.Nature communications · 2022Article
- Evolutionary Insights into the Microneme-Secreted, Chitinase-Containing High-Molecular-Weight Protein Complexes Involved inInfection and immunity · 2022Article
- Presence and potential distribution of malaria-infected New World primates of Costa Rica.Malaria journal · 2022Article
- Prevalence of Malaria and Associated Risk Factors among the Community of Mizan-Aman Town and Its Catchment Area in Southwest Ethiopia.Journal of parasitology research · 2022Article
- Malaria prevalence and risk factors among patients visiting Mizan Tepi University Teaching Hospital, Southwest Ethiopia.PloS one · 2022Article
- Population genomic evidence ofScience advances · 2021Article
58 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
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Authors and funding
18 authors at 11 institutions in 6 countries.
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Abstract
The origin of Plasmodium falciparum, the etiological agent of the most dangerous forms of human malaria, remains controversial. Although investigations of homologous parasites in African Apes are crucial to resolve this issue, studies have been restricted to a chimpanzee parasite related to P. falciparum, P. reichenowi, for which a single isolate was available until very recently. Using PCR amplification, we detected Plasmodium parasites in blood samples from 18 of 91 individuals of the genus Pan, including six chimpanzees (three Pan troglodytes troglodytes, three Pan t. schweinfurthii) and twelve bonobos (Pan paniscus). We obtained sequences of the parasites' mitochondrial genomes and/or from two nuclear genes from 14 samples. In addition to P. reichenowi, three other hitherto unknown lineages were found in the chimpanzees. One is related to P. vivax and two to P. falciparum that are likely to belong to distinct species. In the bonobos we found P. falciparum parasites whose mitochondrial genomes indicated that they were distinct from those present in humans, and another parasite lineage related to P. malariae. Phylogenetic analyses based on this diverse set of Plasmodium parasites in African Apes shed new light on the evolutionary history of P. falciparum. The data suggested that P. falciparum did not originate from P. reichenowi of chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes), but rather evolved in bonobos (Pan paniscus), from which it subsequently colonized humans by a host-switch. Finally, our data and that of others indicated that chimpanzees and bonobos maintain malaria parasites, to which humans are susceptible, a factor of some relevance to the renewed efforts to eradicate malaria.
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