Emerging Infectious Disease ISSN: 1080-6059

Geographic Subdivision of the Range of the Malaria Parasite, Plasmodium vivax

Jun Li*, William E. Collins†, Robert A. Wirtz†, Dharmendar Rathore*, Altaf Lal†, and Thomas F. McCutchan*

Author affiliations: *National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, USA; †Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia, USA

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Figure 3

The sequence of Plasmodium vivax from the Americas is distinguished from Old World isolates by analysis of the 3' end of the S-type rRNA gene. The S-type rRNA sequences were determined from cloned amplified products of parasite DNA and RNA.

Figure 3. The sequence of Plasmodium vivax from the Americas is distinguished from Old World isolates by analysis of the 3' end of the S-type rRNA gene. The S-type rRNA sequences were determined from cloned amplified products of parasite DNA and RNA.

Main Article

¹The biologic diversity inherent in P. vivax already justifies the use of a trinomial system for naming its members that includes the designation of subspecies, a taxonomic character given formal recognition in the International Rules of Zoological Nomenclature. A subspecies is a population or group of populations inhabiting a geographic subdivision of the range of a species and differing from other populations by diagnostic morphologic characteristics.

²The designation of separate species does not require that the two organisms cannot mate and produce viable progeny, only that this does not happen with frequency in natural situations.

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