<title>Abstract</title> Pv47 is the <italic>Plasmodium vivax</italic> ortholog of Pfs47, a surface protein that allows the <italic>Plasmodium falciparum</italic> malaria parasite to evade the mosquito immune system. Mutations in <italic>Pfs47</italic>have enabled <italic>P. falciparum</italic> to adapt to different vectors worldwide, and it has a marked population structure due to natural selection by evolutionarily distant mosquito species. The genetic diversity and population structure of <italic>Pv47</italic> were analyzed in 1,199 <italic>Pv47</italic> gene sequences from 27 countries worldwide and compared with <italic>Pfs47</italic>. The most common <italic>Pv47</italic> polymorphisms are non-synonymous and are present in similar protein-coding regions as polymorphisms in <italic>Pfs47</italic>. Pv47 domain 2 presented an excess of non-synonymous substitutions relative to expectation, suggestive of positive selection. <italic>Pv47</italic> from East Asia/Southeast Asia and Oceania had the highest haplotype diversity, Hd = 0.94 and Hd = 0.93 respectively, and the largest average genetic distance between sequences. <italic>Pv47</italic> exhibited a marked geographic population structure, with the largest genetic distance between South America and other continents (<italic>F</italic><sub><italic>ST</italic></sub> 0.63–0.86). There was also an important genetic distance between <italic>Pvs47</italic> from Oceania and Asia (<italic>F</italic><sub><italic>ST</italic></sub> 0.28–0.50), between Southeast Asia and Middle East/South Asia (<italic>F</italic><sub><italic>ST</italic></sub> 0.25–0.66), and between South America and Mexico (<italic>F</italic><sub><italic>ST</italic></sub> 0.38–0.64). Furthermore, a polymorphism in Pv47 (K27E) was associated with marked differences in the parasite’s ability to infect <italic>Anopheles (Nyssorhynchus) albimanus</italic> and <italic>Anopheles pseudopunctipennis</italic>, two phylogenetically distant vectors in Mexico. Based on the striking similarities in genetic diversity, population structure, and signatures of natural selection between <italic>Pv47</italic> and <italic>Pfs47</italic>, we infer that different <italic>Anopheline</italic> mosquito species select <italic>P. vivax</italic> parasites with compatible Pv47 haplotypes which are then more likely to be transmitted to a new vertebrate host.
