A variant of Plasmodium ovale; analysis of its 18S ribosomal RNA gene sequence.

We report here a new variant of human malaria parasite found by comparison of diagnostic results obtained from a new DNA diagnostic method named microtiter plate-hybridization (MPH) and traditional microscopic method. Total five cases of malaria were diagnosed as microscopy-positive but MPH-negative; one case was found in epidemiological research in Vietnam and four cases were obtained from imported malaria in Japan. Although they were quite similar to typical P. ovale morphologically in microscopy, sequence analysis of PCR-amplified DNA fragment revealed that their 18S ribosomal RNA gene sequence was different from published sequence of P. ovale. Combination of MPH and microscopic examination provides us a new method for detection of a new type of malaria parasite which is difficult to distinguish morphologically.