Journal ArticleDOI
Population dynamics of Plasmodium falciparum sporogony in laboratory-infected Anopheles gambiae.
TLDR
This quantitative study indicates that the sporogony of cultured P. falciparum in laboratory-infected A. gambiae is an inefficient process and that the ookinete is the key transitional stage affecting the probability of vector infectivity.Abstract:
The population dynamics of cultured Plasmodium falciparum parasites was examined during their sporogonic development in Anopheles gambiae mosquitoes. Estimates of absolute densities were determined for each life stage, and life tables were constructed for each of 38 experimental infections. Macrogametocyte and ookinete mortalities contributed equally to the overall mortality. On average, there was a 40-fold decrease in parasite numbers in the transition from the macrogametocyte to the ookinete stage, a 69-fold decrease in the transition from ookinete to oocyst stages, and a total net decrease in parasite numbers from macrogametocyte to oocyst stage of 2,754-fold (i.e., multiplicative). There was no relationship between macrogametocyte and ookinete densities due to the inherent variability in fertility among different gametocyte cultures. There was a curvilinear relationship (r2 = 0.66) between ookinete and oocyst densities. Above a threshold of about 30 ookinetes/mosquito, the oocyst yield per ookinete became increasingly greater with increasing ookinete density. There was a linear relationship (r2 = 0.73) between oocyst and sporozoite densities, with an average of 663 salivary gland sporozoites produced per oocyst. Sporozoite production per oocyst was not affected by oocyst density and virtually all oocyst infections resulted in sporozoite infections of the salivery glands. This quantitative study indicates that the sporogony of cultured P. falciparum in laboratory-infected A. gambiae is an inefficient process and that the ookinete is the key transitional stage affecting the probability of vector infectivity.read more
Citations
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Journal ArticleDOI
Optimal temperature for malaria transmission is dramatically lower than previously predicted.
Eerin A. Mordecai,Krijin P. Paaijmans,Leah R. Johnson,Christian Balzer,Tal Ben-Horin,Emily de Moor,Amy McNally,Samraat Pawar,Sadie J. Ryan,Thomas C. Smith,Kevin D. Lafferty +10 more
TL;DR: A model with more realistic ecological assumptions about the thermal physiology of insects is built, which predicts optimal malaria transmission at 25 °C (6-°C lower than previous models), and predicts that transmission decreases dramatically at temperatures > 28 ° C, altering predictions about how climate change will affect malaria.
Journal ArticleDOI
Natural Microbe-Mediated Refractoriness to Plasmodium Infection in Anopheles gambiae
Chris M. Cirimotich,Yuemei Dong,April M. Clayton,Simone L. Sandiford,Jayme A. Souza-Neto,Musapa Mulenga,George Dimopoulos +6 more
TL;DR: An Enterobacter bacterium isolated from wild mosquito populations in Zambia is identified that renders the mosquito resistant to infection with the human malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum by interfering with parasite development before invasion of the midgut epithelium.
Journal ArticleDOI
Understanding the link between malaria risk and climate.
TL;DR: This work uses a thermodynamic malaria development model to demonstrate that temperature fluctuation can substantially alter the incubation period of the parasite, and hence malaria transmission rates, and finds that it reduces the impact of increases in mean temperature.
Journal ArticleDOI
Malaria parasite development in mosquitoes
TL;DR: Powerful new techniques and approaches exist for evaluating malaria parasite development and for identifying mechanisms regulating malaria parasite-vector interactions, and those interactions that are important for the development of new approaches are focused on.
Journal ArticleDOI
The Journey of the Malaria Parasite in the Mosquito: Hopes for the New Century
TL;DR: Anil Ghosh, Marten Edwards and Marcelo Jacobs-Lorena follow the journey of the Plasmodium parasite in the mosquito vector, highlighting some of the major unanswered questions currently challenging cell and molecular biologists.
References
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Book
Ecological methods: With particular reference to the study of insect populations
TL;DR: Ecological methods : with particular reference to the study of insect populations, Ecological methods for estimating insect populations using probabilistic methods.
Journal ArticleDOI
Ecological Methods, with Particular Reference to the Study of Insect Populations
L. R. Taylor,T. R. E. Southwood +1 more
Journal ArticleDOI
Insect Population Ecology: an Analytical Approach
Journal ArticleDOI
Genetic Selection of a Plasmodium-Refractory Strain of the Malaria Vector Anopheles gambiae
Frank H. Collins,Richard K. Sakai,Kenneth D. Vernick,Susan M. Paskewitz,Douglas C. Seeley,Louis H. Miller,William E. Collins,Carlos C. Campbell,Robert W. Gwadz +8 more
TL;DR: Production of fully refractory and fully susceptible mosquito strains was achieved through a short series of selective breeding steps, indicating a relatively simple genetic basis for refractoriness and encourages consideration of genetic manipulation of natural vector populations as a malaria control strategy.