{"doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-92978/v1","title":"Shifts in P. falciparum genetic structure and gametocyte markers in the transition to elimination","abstract":"<title>Abstract</title> Large-scale programs targeting <italic>Plasmodium falciparum</italic> (<italic>Pf</italic>) elimination can exert strong selection pressures on the parasite population. To better understand the impact that elimination initiatives can have on <italic>Pf</italic> genetic structure and gametocyte carriage, we applied amplicon-based sequencing of two polymorphic <italic>Pf</italic> genes and quantitative reverse-transcription PCR targeting gametocyte-specific genes to <italic>Pf</italic> isolates collected in Magude District (Southern Mozambique) before and after an elimination initiative. The 71% reduction of <italic>Pf</italic> prevalence achieved in 2 years was followed by reductions in <italic>Pf</italic> genetic diversity and increases in between-infection similarity. These genetic shifts were accompanied by increases in the relative transcript number of the female mature gametocyte marker <italic>pfs25</italic>, the <italic>pfap2g</italic> transcription factor that drives gametocytogenesis and the sexual ring marker <italic>pfgexp02</italic>, suggesting the parasite ability of adapting its sexual investment during elimination initiatives. Reactive interventions that target <italic>Pf</italic> sexual stages may be required to achieve complete interruption of transmission.","journal":null,"year":2020,"id":127872,"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":1,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9567,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2020-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":577479,"name":"Beatriz Galatas","orcid":"0000-0002-9546-6385","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":577480,"name":"Arlindo Chidimatembue","orcid":"0000-0003-0549-9894","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":577481,"name":"Wilson Simone","orcid":"0000-0003-4056-7098","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":577482,"name":"Glória Matambisso","orcid":"0000-0002-7961-6566","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":577483,"name":"Arnau Pujol","orcid":"0000-0001-7288-6435","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":282197,"name":"Carlos Ruiz-Arenas","orcid":"0000-0002-6014-3498","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":257614,"name":"Juan R. González","orcid":"0000-0003-3267-2146","position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":578118,"name":"Lidia Nhamussa","orcid":null,"position":8,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":577484,"name":"Pau Cisteró","orcid":"0000-0001-7225-4331","position":9,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":577485,"name":"Regina Rabinovich","orcid":"0000-0003-1065-0173","position":10,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":577486,"name":"Pedro L. Alonso","orcid":"0000-0003-3292-3443","position":11,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":577487,"name":"Francisco Saúte","orcid":"0000-0002-9107-8094","position":12,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":341253,"name":"Pedro Aíde","orcid":"0000-0002-2379-6529","position":13,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":269835,"name":"Alfredo Mayor","orcid":"0000-0003-3890-2897","position":14,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":303961,"name":"Himanshu Gupta","orcid":"0000-0003-1391-8358","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":31,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-18T23:15:34.966380Z","pmid":null,"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":[]}