Falciparum Malaria Evolved In Bonobos

In my chapter LESS IS MORE I detail the story of how a drastic mutation in the CMAH gene that turned it into a functionless relic in humans may have occurred in our ancestors, Homo erectus, as a means of fighting susceptibility to Plasmodium reichenowi - the progenitor of modern falciparum malaria. The idea is that reichenowi was the dominant form of malaria back then, shared by erectus and chimps, and that it affected Homo more than it appears to affect chimps today, setting up the severe selection pressure. Falciparum subsequently evolved from reichenowi as a further step in the arms race between hominids and their pathogens. But when, how, and from what species, did falciparum evolve? The paper reported here suggests that it evolved in bonobos and spread to man from there. No date is suggested. It is available in entirety from the open access journal PLoS Pathogens at http://www.plospathogens.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.ppat1000765