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Transgenic Mosquitoes Expressing a Phospholipase A(2) Gene Have a Fitness Advantage When Fed Plasmodium Falciparum-Infected Blood
PLoS One (2013)
  • Ryan C. Smith, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
  • Christopher Kizito, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
  • Jason L. Rasgon, Pennsylvania State University
  • Marcelo Jacobs-Lorena, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
Abstract

Genetically modified mosquitoes have been proposed as an alternative strategy to reduce the heavy burden of malaria. In recent years, several proof-of-principle experiments have been performed that validate the idea that mosquitoes can be genetically modified to become refractory to malaria parasite development. We have created two transgenic lines of Anophelesstephensi, a natural vector of Plasmodium falciparum, which constitutively secrete a catalytically inactive phospholipase A2 (mPLA2) into the midgut lumen to interfere with Plasmodium ookinete invasion. Our experiments show that both transgenic lines expressing mPLA2 significantly impair the development of rodent malaria parasites, but only one line impairs the development of human malaria parasites. In addition, when fed on malaria-infected blood, mosquitoes from both transgenic lines are more fecund than non-transgenic mosquitoes. Consistent with these observations, cage experiments with mixed populations of transgenic and non-transgenic mosquitoes show that the percentage of transgenic mosquitoes increases when maintained on Plasmodium-infected blood. Our results suggest that the expression of an anti-Plasmodium effector gene gives transgenic mosquitoes a fitness advantage when fed malaria-infected blood. These findings have important implications for future applications of transgenic mosquito technology in malaria control.

Keywords
  • Anophelesstephensi. malaria,
  • phospholipase A2,
  • Plasmodium falciparum
Disciplines
Publication Date
October, 2013
Publisher Statement
This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Citation Information
Ryan C. Smith, Christopher Kizito, Jason L. Rasgon and Marcelo Jacobs-Lorena. "Transgenic Mosquitoes Expressing a Phospholipase A(2) Gene Have a Fitness Advantage When Fed Plasmodium Falciparum-Infected Blood" PLoS One Vol. 8 Iss. 10 (2013)
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/ryan_smith1/4/