The article is Origin of the human malaria parasite Plasmodium Research Paper

The article is Origin of the human malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum in gorillas by Weimin Liu1 - Research Paper Example The study also revealed that the infections contained mixed species. Over 1100 nuclear, mitochondrial, and apicoplast genes were analyzed. Additionally, 99 percent of the genes were classified in any of the six Plasmodium species. Plasmodium falciparum does not originate from human, chimpanzee, or bonobo. It mainly originates from gorilla. The study is based on Plasmodium species as the cause of malaria. Among the species, the most prevalent is Plasmodium falciparum. The background of the study was that P. reichenowi that has close relations with P. falciparum was found in chimpanzee. Furthermore, there have been more plasmodium relations that have been found in Western gorillas and bonobos. Contrastingly, previous studies were used to develop the hypothesis that cross-species transmission among apes could have given rise to P. falciparum in human beings. The study revealed that the main reservoirs for Plasmodium are Western gorillas and chimpanzees. It also found that distribution of malarial parasites among apes depends on seasonal, regional, and ecological differences. Consequently, that gave details of the existence of the Plasmodium species in different locations. A study was designed to find colonization of human beings by gorilla parasites. It involved the construction of phylogenetic trees which compared genome equivalents. Accordingly, it was found that the human P. falciparum consequences had their routes to an ancestor in the gorilla parasite. The findings assert the evidence that human P. falciparum have its origin in gorillas (Weimin, 11). Alternatively, the study portrays a monopoly in the sequences of human parasites and establishes the different human strains that originated from one cross-species in terms of transmission from gorilla-to-human. However, infections in bonobos were from human parasites when the apes resided in urban sanctuaries. The study discovers that over nine plasmodium species naturally infect