Fig. 5

Temporal variation of within-host and population level genetic diversity of P. falciparum parasites in Vhembe. a Multiplicity of infection (MOI) measured as the second highest number of alleles detected at any of the 26 loci across the different years of transmission. The dashed red line indicates the mean MOI = 2.13. b Within-host diversity index (outbreeding, 1-F_WS) measured across the different years. The dashed red line indicates the mean 1-Fws = 0.22. c Population level genetic diversity measured as the distribution of heterozygosity in 26 microsatellite loci across the different years from when the samples were collected. The dashed red line indicates the mean heterozygosity = 0.74. Pairwise P values (t-test) are indicated in all plots where, not significant: P > 0.05; *: P ≤ 0.05; **: P ≤ 0.01; ***: P ≤ 0.001; ****: P ≤ 0.0001 d MOI distribution of collated samples throughout all the months of the year against different rainfall (black line) and temperature (blue line) patterns