The genetic structure of malaria parasite populations.

The suggestion that a clonal population structure may typify Plasmodium populations has proved highly controversial. For the most part, existing population genetic data from wild populations contradict the idea and are consistent with randomly interbreeding populations. In this article, Andrew Read and Koren Day point out that these data could also be consistent with population subdivision and frequent nonrandom mating, which current sampling methods would be incapable of detecting.