To survive in such partially resistant hosts, parasites would have developed a mechanism(s) to evade host immune attacks and thus favorable mutations were probably accumulated in immune target antigen genes such as msp1. During the radiation of macaques in Southeast Asia, sympatric speciation of macaques occurred and this may have provided a niche for a potential expansion of host range of ancestral malaria parasites. Here, ATAD1 is linked to malaria.