Table 1.

Estimates of the average genetic distance between and within Plasmodium spp.

The table shows average genetic distances based on variable domain 5 (V5) of the 18S gene sequences between (black) and within (red) Plasmodium spp. Standard errors (SE) for interspecies values (black) are shown above the diagonal (blue). The number of sequences (n) in each group of Plasmodium spp. is indicated in the second column. All V5 sequences generated in this study (including the MR4 sequence) and all comparable sequences from GenBank were included into the analysis. Sequences for P. malariae and P. brasilianum are listed in the supplementary appendix. Data show that genetic divergence between P. brasilianum and P. malariae is not more than within a species (gray boxes). Pmal, P. malariae; Pbra, P. brasilianum; Pfal, P. falciparum; Pviv, P. vivax; Pkno, P. knowlesi; Pcyn, P. cynomolgi; Poc, P. ovale curtisi; Pow, P. ovale wallikeri.