Molecular characterization and phylogenetic analysis of Plasmodium vivax, Plasmodium falciparum, Plasmodium ovale, Plasmodium malariae and Plasmodium cynomolgi

18S ribosomal RNA gene sequences of different species of Plasmodium were aligned and analyzed to determine the molecular diversity among different species of Plasmodium. AT content of P. cynomolgi, P. ovale, P. falciparum, P. vivax and P. malariae ranged from 62.30 to 63.15, 63.90 to 65.29, 66.67 to 68.40, 61.66 to 63.25 and 64.09 to 76.36 in case respectively. GC content of P. cynomolgi, P. ovale, P. falciparum, P. vivaxand P. malariae ranged from 36.85 to 37.70, 34.71 to 36.43, 31.60 to 33.27, 23.64 to 35.91 and 36.75 to 38.34 respectively. Molecular weight (Da) of P. cynomolgi, P. ovale, P. falciparum, P. vivax and P. malariae ranged from 1,160,127.00 to 1,400,332.00, 437,273.00 to 481,438.00, 668,021.00 to 685,243.00, 540,378.00 to 1,176,962.00 and 132,788.00 to 305,211.00 respectively. Relative melting temperature (Tm) of P. cynomolgi and P. ovale varied from 0.36799 to 0.36837 and 0.36712 to 0.36814 respectively. In P. falciparum and P. vivax relative Tm ranged from 0.36545 to 0.36626 and 0.36802 to 0.36866 respectively. Relative Tm of P. malariae varied from 0.36174 to 0.36790.