GJB2 and malaria: Consequently, human domestication of plants and animals in the subregion and exposure to these conditions may have increased contact with infectious pathogens like the malaria parasite that may have elicited the selection of certain pathogenic variants such as the sickle cell mutation, and possibly GJB2-p.(Arg143Trp) to protect against the deadly malaria parasite through a heterozygote advantage [52,53].