Evolutionary theory argues that ecological interactions between pathogens within an infection can be a potent source of selection shaping traits such as virulence, drug resistance, and infectiousness. In humans, malaria infections are frequently genetically diverse, with mixed genotype infections the norm. A wide variety of evidence shows that crowding occurs within infections, with the population densities of individual genotypes suppressed by the presence of others.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: The environmental conditions experienced by parents are increasingly recognized to impact the success of offspring. Little is known on the presence of such parental effects in Anopheles. If present, parental effects could influence mosquito breeding programmes, some malaria control measures and have epidemiological and evolutionary consequences.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWe have used the method of amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) to identify genetic polymorphisms between two cloned isolates of the rodent malaria parasite Plasmodium chabaudi chabaudi. The method employs polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-amplification of genomic DNA fragments cut with specific combinations of restriction endonucleases; we used EcoRI and Tru1I (isoschizomer of MseI). We have identified 819 parasite clone-specific AFLPs between P.
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