Perkins Susan L
Sackler Institute for Comparative Genomics, American Museum of Natural History, Central Park West at 79th Street, New York, NY 10024, USA.
Mitochondrial DNA. 2008 Dec;19(6):471-8. doi: 10.1080/19401730802570926.
The mitochondrial genomes of malaria parasites (Plasmodium and related genera) are extremely small and contain just three protein-coding genes. These short linear genomes are tandemly repeated, allowing for amplification of the entire unit using a single pair of outwardly facing primers.
Using this approach, I sequenced full mitochondrial genomes for seven new lineages of these parasites belonging to four genera and then, combining these new sequences with other published ones, I examined the phylogenetic utility of each of the three protein-coding genes, alone and when concatenated into a data-set of 3315 nucleotides.
Most relationships recovered are consistent with previous studies of the group.
Support for an Asian origin of Plasmodium vivax and a sister relationship of Plasmodium falciparum to the rodent malaria parasites was observed in this study. However, if a broad understanding of the evolutionary relationships of this group is to truly be understood, it is clear that loci outside the mitochondrial genome should be explored.
疟原虫（疟原虫属及相关属）的线粒体基因组极小，仅包含三个蛋白质编码基因。这些短线性基因组串联重复，可使用一对向外的引物扩增整个单元。
利用此方法，我对属于四个属的这些寄生虫的七个新谱系的完整线粒体基因组进行了测序，然后将这些新序列与其他已发表的序列相结合，单独以及将三个蛋白质编码基因串联成一个3315个核苷酸的数据集时，研究了每个基因的系统发育效用。
恢复的大多数关系与该群体先前的研究一致。
本研究观察到支持间日疟原虫起源于亚洲以及恶性疟原虫与啮齿类疟原虫为姐妹关系。然而，如果要真正全面理解该群体的进化关系，显然应该探索线粒体基因组之外的基因座。
