An anti-malaria gene protects some children from developing the disease, researchers reported last night.
The gene explains why some children in exposed communities develop severe malaria and others do not, according to the British research team.
The findings, reported in Nature, come from a study of the DNA of more than 25,000 children conducted by an international research team.
In Kenya, the researchers found a particularly strongly protective allele – linked to a reduced risk of malaria of 40%.
The researchers say the genetic variations may date back millions of years – as it is found in haplotypes shared with chimpanzees.
Researcher Professor Dominic Kwiatkowsk, of the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Cambridge, UK, said: "We can now say, unequivocally, that genetic variations in this region of the human genome provide strong protection against severe malaria in real-world settings, making a difference to whether a child lives or dies.
"These findings indicate that balancing selection and resistance to malaria are deeply intertwined themes in our ancient evolutionary history.
"This new resistance locus is particularly interesting because it lies so close to genes that are gatekeepers for the malaria parasite’s invasion machinery. We now need to drill down at this locus to characterise these complex patterns of genetic variation more precisely and to understand the molecular mechanisms by which they act."
Fellow researcher Professor Kevin Marsh, from the Kemri-Wellcome Research Programme in Kilifi, Kenya, said: "The risk of developing severe malaria turns out to be strongly linked to the process by which the malaria parasite gains entry to the human red blood cell.
"This study strengthens the argument for focusing on the malaria side of the parasite-human interaction in our search for new vaccine candidates."
A novel locus of resistance to severe malaria in a region of ancient balancing selection. Nature 30 September 2015 [abstract]
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