Malaria-GENOMAP: a web-based tool for exploring genomic variation of malaria parasites

Malaria, caused by Plasmodium parasites, imposes a significant public health burden. While Plasmodium falciparum remains the primary target of elimination strategies due to its high mortality rate, lesser-known species such as P. malariae, P. vivax, and P. knowlesi continue to contribute to substantial human morbidity. Genomic approaches, including whole-genome sequencing, offer powerful tools for understanding the biology, transmission, and emerging drug resistance of these neglected Plasmodium species. However, there is an urgent need for informatic tools to summarize and visualize the high-dimensional and complex genomic data generated.

We developed Malaria-GENOMAP, a user-friendly web-based tool, which integrates genomic variant data, such as allele frequencies, with geographical maps and chromosome-wide to gene views for in-depth exploration. The tool includes variation from P. knowlesi (n = 139), P. malariae (n = 158), P. ovale curtisi (n = 36), P. ovale wallikeri (n = 47), P. simium (n = 38), and P. vivax (n = 1359). It enables the investigation of population structure, geographic associations of mutations, and putative drug resistance markers, offering valuable insights for malaria control efforts.

Malaria-GENOMAP is available online at https://genomics.lshtm.ac.uk/malaria-genomaps.