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All modern Plasmodium falciparum, the deadliest malaria parasite in humans, are descendants of one initial infection and so are very closely related, with relatively limited genetic differences. A long-standing mystery in the field has revolved around a very few locations in the P. falciparum genome where there are ‘spikes’ of mutations — far more than anywhere else. Researchers have identified two genes in which these unusual mutation spikes result from DNA being copied and pasted from one gene to another.