falciparum parasites from Lake Victoria formed a distinct subpopulation within the larger East African parasite population, caused in part by the greater contribution of Central African parasites to the ancestral genomes of Lake Victoria parasites. They described their findings in the journal Scientific Reports.Īnalyses based on single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) or point mutations showed that P. To gain more insights into the genomic diversity and population dynamics of Plasmodium falciparum, the deadliest malaria parasite in humans, Kaneko and his collaborators generated whole genome sequence data from 48 parasite isolates and compared them with parasites from other parts of Africa. "A comprehensive picture of a population of parasites requires an understanding of them on the individual genome level," says Professor Akira Kaneko of the Department of Parasitology, Osaka City University Graduate School of Medicine.įor the past decade, Professor Kaneko and his collaborators have conducted various studies on malaria in and around Lake Victoria, Kenya, where the disease burden is among the highest in the country, to find ways to eliminate malaria successfully.