Genotyping of CCR5 gene, CCR2b and SDF1 variants related to HIV-1 infection in Gabonese subjects.

Objective: Given the magnitude of the HIV epidemic infection, many viral and human factors were analyzed, and the most decisive was the variant CCR5-Δ32. The presence of a low HIV prevalence (1.8%) in Gabon in the 1990s, compared to neighboring countries, represents a paradox that led us to search for viral and human genetic variants in this country.

Prevalence of the sickle cell trait in Gabon: a nationwide study.

Sickle Cell Disease (SCD) is an important cause of death in young children in Africa, which the World Health Organization has declared a public health priority. Although SCD has been studied at the continental scale and at the local scale, a picture of its distribution at the scale of an African country has never been given. The aim of this study is to provide such a picture for the Republic of Gabon, a country where precisely the epidemiology of SCD has been poorly investigated.

Insights into the biogeographical history of the Lower Guinea Forest Domain: evidence for the role of refugia in the intraspecific differentiation of Aucoumea klaineana.

Determining the biogeographical histories of rainforests is central to our understanding of the present distribution of tropical biodiversity. Ice age fragmentation of central African rainforests strongly influenced species distributions. Elevated areas characterized by higher species richness and endemism have been postulated to be Pleistocene forest refugia.

Small-scale spatial genetic structure in the Central African rainforest tree species Aucoumea klaineana: a stepwise approach to infer the impact of limited gene dispersal, population history and habitat fragmentation.

Under the isolation-by-distance model, the strength of spatial genetic structure (SGS) depends on seed and pollen dispersal and genetic drift, which in turn depends on local demographic structure. SGS can also be influenced by historical events such as admixture of differentiated gene pools. We analysed the fine-scale SGS in six populations of a pioneer tree species endemic to Central Africa, Aucoumea klaineana.

Human genetic polymorphisms and asymptomatic Plasmodium falciparum malaria in Gabonese schoolchildren.

Several studies have focused their attention on the relationship between host genetic factors and susceptibility/resistance to severe malaria. However, there is a paucity of information concerning the role of host genetic factors in asymptomatic malaria, a form of low-grade Plasmodium falciparum infection without clinical symptoms. We investigated in this study the potential relationship between the host (human) genetic polymorphisms (glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase [G6PD], mannose binding lectin [MBL], tumor necrosis factor alpha [TNFalpha](-308) and (-238), and nitric oxide synthase 2 [NOS2](-954)) and the prevalence and profile of asymptomatic P.