Fig. 2

Within-host and population level diversity of P. falciparum parasites in the Vhembe District. a Multiplicity of infection (MOI) measured as the second highest number of alleles detected at any of the 26 loci. The dashed red line indicates the mean MOI = 2.13. The inserted pie chart shows proportion of single (34%) to multiple (66%) infections. b Within-host diversity index (1-Fws). 1-Fws value shows outbreeding and a value of 0 indicates a perfect clone. The dashed blue line indicates the cut-off of 1-Fws ≤ 0.05 which represents samples with clonal infections. The dashed red line indicates the cut-off of 1-Fws ≥ 0.30 which represents samples with high genetic diversity. The inserted pie chart shows proportion of clonal (40%) to highly diverse (33%) infections. c Distribution of number of unique alleles (allelic richness) detected in 26 microsatellite loci. The dashed red line indicates the mean = 12.2. d Population level genetic diversity measured as the distribution of heterozygosity in 26 microsatellite loci. The dashed red line indicates the mean heterozygosity = 0.74