Molecular genetic characterization of the merozoite surface protein 1 Gene of Plasmodium vivax from reemerging Korean isolates.

Plasmodium vivax merozoite surface protein 1 (PvMSP-1) has been considered a major candidate for the development of an antimalaria vaccine, but the molecule exhibits antigenic diversity among isolates. The extent of genetic polymorphism in the region between interspecies conserved blocks 4 and 5 (ICB4 and ICB5) of the PvMSP-1 gene was analyzed for 30 Korean isolates. Two genotypes, SK-A and SK-B, were identified on the basis of amino acid substitution. Almost all the amino acid sequences of the Korean isolates were nearly identical to those of the Solomon Island isolate Solo-83 (97.8 to 99.9% similarity) and Philippine isolates Ph-79, Ph-52-2, and Ph-49 (97.3 to 99.8% similarity). Also, we report two sequences in the isolates that were characterized on the basis of restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP). The RFLP profiles following digestion with the DraI restriction enzyme produced two distinguishable patterns. This study might be the first report of the region between ICB4 and ICB5 of the MSP-1 gene of P. vivax in South Korea.