This parasite is not, however, as deadly as Plasmodium falciparum, the main cause of malarial mortality.

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To investigate, scientists sequenced the genomes of 800 malaria-causing parasites (Plasmodium falciparum) collected from around the world.

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They are also much more likely than non-African mosquitoes to carry the deadliest of the four malarial parasites, Plasmodium falciparum.

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The variant form of DARC stops the growth of Plasmodium vivax, one of the four parasites that can cause malaria.

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Just as researchers use mice to model human physiology, so they use this parasite, Plasmodium berghei, to model the lethal Plasmodium falciparum.

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The curious life cycle of the parasite, called plasmodium, is one of the reasons why the disease has proved so difficult to control.

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In Africa, the Anopheles gambiae mosquito is the principle carrier of the malarial parasite Plasmodium falciparum, the most dangerous of four different parasites.

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"Our ability to grow Plasmodium in the fruit fly is especially fortunate because scientists recently determined the complete sequence of the Drosophila genome, " says Dr Shahabuddin.

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"Plasmodium is not a simple organism like a bacterium or virus, " says Dr Mohammed Shahabuddin, at the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and a co-author on the study published in the journal Science.

BBC: Infected flies boost malaria hope