{"doi":"10.1093/infdis/jiab214","title":"<i>Plasmodium simium</i> : Population Genomics Reveals the Origin of a Reverse Zoonosis","abstract":"BACKGROUND: The population history of Plasmodium simium, which causes malaria in sylvatic Neotropical monkeys and humans along the Atlantic Coast of Brazil, remains disputed. Genetically diverse P vivax populations from various sources, including the lineages that founded the species P simium, are thought to have arrived in the Americas in separate migratory waves. METHODS: We use population genomic approaches to investigate the origin and evolution of P simium. RESULTS: We find a minimal genome-level differentiation between P simium and present-day New World P vivax isolates, consistent with their common geographic origin and subsequent divergence on this continent. The meagre genetic diversity in P simium samples from humans and monkeys implies a recent transfer from humans to non-human primates - a unique example of malaria as a reverse zoonosis of public health significance. Likely genomic signatures of P simium adaptation to new hosts include the deletion of >40% of a key erythrocyte invasion ligand, PvRBP2a, which may have favored more efficient simian host cell infection. CONCLUSIONS: New World P vivax lineages that switched from humans to platyrrhine monkeys founded the P simium population that infects nonhuman primates and feeds sustained human malaria transmission in the outskirts of major cities.","journal":"The Journal of Infectious Diseases","year":2021,"id":164530,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":38,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9604,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2021-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":290862,"name":"Priscila T. Rodrigues","orcid":"0000-0001-5352-6071","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":249733,"name":"Angela M. Early","orcid":"0000-0002-3169-2324","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":686444,"name":"Ana Maria Ribeiro de Castro Duarte","orcid":"0000-0001-8386-2762","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":686445,"name":"Julyana Cerqueira Buery","orcid":"0000-0002-9819-7539","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":686446,"name":"Marina Galvão Bueno","orcid":"0000-0001-7903-4147","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":686447,"name":"José Luiz Catão‐Dias","orcid":"0000-0003-2999-3395","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":686448,"name":"Crispim Cerutti","orcid":"0000-0002-9485-4191","position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":686449,"name":"Luísa D. P. Rona","orcid":"0000-0002-3400-3950","position":8,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":249741,"name":"Daniel E. Neafsey","orcid":"0000-0002-1665-9323","position":9,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":290870,"name":"Marcelo U. Ferreira","orcid":"0000-0002-5293-9090","position":10,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":489905,"name":"Thaís C. de Oliveira","orcid":"0000-0002-9959-0690","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":50,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-18T23:45:32.226038Z","pmid":"33870436","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}