Five Malaria Genomes Sequenced
Scientists from the Case Western Reserve University and Cleveland Clinic in Ohio, USA have sequenced the complete genomes of five Plasmodium vivax strains from patients in Cambodia and Madagascar. The sequencing work has identified 80,000 SNPs that can form the basis for association studies and population surveys to study the diversity of P. vivax in a single region.
The researchers also resequenced the Sal I strain which came from a patient in El Salvador in 1972, and was first sequenced in 2008. Resequencing the Sal I strain helped the researchers confirm the viability of their next generation whole-genome sequencing approach. P. vivax, the most frequently transmitted and widely distributed malarial parasite in the world, is estimated to cause 250 million cases of malaria every year, and the results of the sequencing work provide new data that will help in future mapping of malarial parasite traits such as drug resistance.
More details are available at http://www.genengnews.com/gen-news-highlights/five-malaria-genomes-sequenced/81247282/.
This article is part of the Crop Biotech Update, a weekly summary of world developments in agri-biotech for developing countries, produced by the Global Knowledge Center on Crop Biotechnology, International Service for the Aquisition of Agri-Biotech Applications SEAsiaCenter (ISAAA)
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