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Updated: May 23, 2026

Methods to Increase the Sensitivity of High Resolution Melting Single Nucleotide Polymorphism Genotyping in Malaria
Published on: November 10, 2015
High degree of Plasmodium vivax diversity in the Peruvian Amazon demonstrated by tandem repeat polymorphism analysis
Margaret Kosek1, Pablo P Yori, Robert H Gilman
1Department of International Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland, USA. mkosek@jhsph.edu
Abstract:
Molecular tools to distinguish strains of Plasmodium vivax are important for studying the epidemiology of malaria transmission. Two sets of markers-tandem repeat (TR) polymorphisms and MSP3α-were used to study Plasmodium vivax in patients in the Peruvian Amazon region of Iquitos. Of 110 patients, 90 distinct haplotypes were distinguished using 9 TR markers. An MSP3α polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) using HhaI and AluI revealed 8 and 9 profiles, respectively, and 36 profiles when analyzed in combination. Combining TR and PCR-RFLP markers, 101 distinct molecular profiles were distinguished among these 110 patients. Nine TR markers arrayed along a 100 kB stretch of a P. vivax chromosome containing the gene for circumsporozoite protein showed non-linear linkage disequilibrium (I(SA) = 0.03, P = 0.001). These findings demonstrate the potential use of TR markers for molecular epidemiology studies.
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