The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) harbors 11% of global malaria cases, yet little is known about the spatial and genetic structure of the parasite population in that country. We sequence 2537 Plasmodium falciparum infections, including a nationally representative population sample from DRC and samples from surrounding countries, using molecular inversion probes - a high-throughput genotyping tool. We identify an east-west divide in haplotypes known to confer resistance to chloroquine and sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine. Furthermore, we identify highly related parasites over large geographic distances, indicative of gene flow and migration. Our results are consistent with a background of isolation by distance combined with the effects of selection for antimalarial drug resistance. This study provides a high-resolution view of parasite genetic structure across a large country in Africa and provides a baseline to study how implementation programs may impact parasite populations.
CITATION STYLE
Verity, R., Aydemir, O., Brazeau, N. F., Watson, O. J., Hathaway, N. J., Mwandagalirwa, M. K., … Juliano, J. J. (2020). The impact of antimalarial resistance on the genetic structure of Plasmodium falciparum in the DRC. Nature Communications, 11(1). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-15779-8
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