Resumo
Malaria is a vector-borne disease caused by parasitic protozoa of the genus Plasmodium. It exerted one of the strongest selective pressures acting on the human genome and causes over half a million deaths each year. Nevertheless, significant questions remain regarding when and how particular malaria-causing parasites emerged as human pathogens and spread around the globe. In particular, debate persists over whether the two most widespread and clinically relevant malaria agents, Plasmodium falciparum and Plasmodium vivax, were present in the Americas prior to European contact or spread from Europe and/or Africa during the colonial period. To investigate this question, we present nuclear and mitochondrial genome-wide data from 36 ancient P. vivax, P. falciparum, and P. malariae strains spanning 16 countries and 5,500 years of human history, including a high-coverage P. vivax genome recovered from a Chachapoyas individual from the peri-contact Peruvian site of Laguna de los Cóndores. Genomic analysis of this dataset reveals close genetic links between now-eliminated European P. vivax and ancient and modern Latin American lineages, suggesting a European source for strains still circulating in the Americas today. Moreover, the Laguna de los Cóndores strain shows greater affinity to Peruvian P. vivax compared to other Latin American populations, providing evidence for persistance of an endemic malaria focus in the region from the early contact period until today. Overall, our results provide a first glimpse into the processes via which P. vivax gained a foothold in the Americas during the period of the Columbian Exchange.
Palabras chave
Malaria. ADNA. European colonialism.