Investigating mechanisms for disseminating the Plasmodium-inhibiting Microsporidia MB symbiont in Anopheles arabiensis
Wellcome Trust
International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology
There has been recent research interest in the prospect of modifying mosquito vectors to make them resistant to Plasmodium infections. One method of modifying mosquitoes involves symbiotic microbes which protect their hosts from infection and are known to persist across multiple generations (transmitted from mother to offspring). Our team has recently isolated a novel fungal symbiont (microsporidia) which occurs naturally in the Anopheles mosquitoes. The symbiont confers mosquitoes a protective phenotype against malaria, both in the wild and under controlled laboratory settings. This finding offers a potential avenue to develop a novel malaria control strategy. To ensure the symbiont is useful as part of a control strategy, we will need to find a way to increase the infection rate in wild mosquitoes (5-10% of Anopheles mosquitoes harbor this fungal symbiont). The proposed research will investigate two possible methods to increase infections rates; a) dissemination of fungal symbiont spores b) Using a pathogenic fungus to kill uninfected mosquitoes (hence increasing the proportion of infected ones). The outcome of this research will be a better insight into methods to practically modify a mosquito population to harbor an enduring transmission blocking microbe.
2.2 Factors relating to physical environment