Apicoplast phylogeny reveals the position of Plasmodium vivax basal to the Asian primate malaria parasite clade

The malaria parasite species, Plasmodium vivax infects not only humans, but also African apes. Human specific P. vivax has evolved from a single ancestor that originated from a parasite of African apes. Although previous studies have proposed phylogenetic trees positioning P. vivax (the common ancestor of human and African ape P. vivax) within the assemblages of Asian primate parasites, its position has not yet been robustly confirmed. We determined nearly complete apicoplast genome sequences from seven Asian primate parasites, Plasmodium cynomolgi (strains Ceylonensis and Berok), P. knowlesi P. fragile, P. fieldi, P. simiovale, P. hylobati, P. inui, and an African primate parasite, P. gonderi, that infects African guenon. Phylogenetic relationships of the Plasmodium species were analyzed using newly and previously determined apicoplast genome sequences. Multigene maximum likelihood analysis of 30 protein coding genes did not position P. vivax within the Asian primate parasite clade but positioned it basal to the clade, after the branching of an African guenon parasite, P. gonderi. The result does not contradict with the emerging notion that P. vivax phylogenetically originated from Africa. The result is also supported by phylogenetic analyses performed using massive nuclear genome data of seven primate Plasmodium species.