Identification of genomic components that predict transmission of the malaria parasite in different vector species

The malaria parasite (Plasmodium falciparum) has a complex life cycle in which it must transit through multiple environments in a vertebrate host and mosquito vector. Transmission begins with ingestion of an infectious blood meal by one of 40 potential Anopheles mosquito species capable of transmitting the disease. This initiates the most extreme population bottleneck in the life cycle in which the parasite must rapidly undergo fertilisation, develop into an invasive form and transit through the midgut epithelium. The hypothesis is that parasites have adapted to their local vector community composition, and this shapes their ability to infect sympatric and allopatric vector species. Using large-scale transmissibility assays and single-cell RNA-sequencing, genomic and transcriptomic vector-dependent signatures of transmission will be identified. Then the study will generate allelic-replacement parasites to unambiguously attribute phenotypic variation in species-specific transmission to specific loci in the parasite. Comprehensively understanding how vector communities shape parasite populations will guide future interventions and vector control programs by providing information that will allow for strategies to be locally tailored based on parasite genomic-surveillance and entomological surveys.

Project details

Genetics and Genomics
Measurement of Transmission

Aug 2020 — Jul 2025

$1.41M

United Kingdom