The MalariaGEN community project on P. falciparum population genomics (formerly known as P. falciparum genome variation) has been in a preliminary phase since 2010. Much work has been done behind the scenes to develop methods for sequencing parasite DNA from infected blood samples without culture, and to establish data analysis pipelines that can reliably call genetic variation in field samples from short sequencing reads.

The project has reached an important milestone, with the forthcoming publication of a paper in the journal Nature reporting on the initial results of these analyses, accompanied by the online publication of a catalog of genetic variations (SNPs) and global allele frequencies. Also, two major releases of parasite genotype data to project partners have now been completed, and a new web-based tool enabling partners to browse genotype calls on their samples will shortly be released.

To help consolidate these achievements, and to provide a fair and sustainable foundation for this community project and its current and future partners, MalariaGEN has published a draft consultation document laying out in more detail the aims and potential benefits of the project, both to partners and to the wider research community, and proposing terms for data-sharing, scholarly publication and attribution.

To download the consultation document, and for more information on how to submit comments, please visit the P. falciparum population genomics community project home page.