Investigating mechanisms for disseminating the Plasmodium-inhibiting Microsporidia MB symbiont in Anopheles arabiensis

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). Researchers have 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, it will be needed to find a way to increase the infection rate in wild mosquitoes (5-10% of Anopheles mosquitoes harbor this fungal symbiont). 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.

Vector-based Strategies

Sep 2020 — Feb 2023

$160,891

Kenya