Symbionts of Anopheles for Malaria transmission blocking | New Voices in Infection Biology

If you are interested in joining the seminar, please contact: vseminars@mpiib-berlin.mpg.de

Once registered, you will receive a zoom conference link 30 mins before the talk starts - please sign in using your full name.

Talk abstract:

A possible novel malaria control approach involves the dissemination in mosquitoes of inherited symbiotic microbes to block Plasmodium transmission. However, in the Anopheles gambiae complex, the primary African vectors of malaria, there are limited reports of inherited symbionts with transmission-blocking capacity. We have discovered a vertically transmitted microsporidian symbiont (Microsporidia MB) in the An. gambiae complex can block Plasmodium transmission. Microsporidia MB is present at moderate prevalence in geographically dispersed populations of An. arabiensis in Kenya, localized to the mosquito midgut and ovaries, and is not associated with significant reductions in adult host fecundity or survival. Field-collected Microsporidia MB infected An. arabiensis are never found to harbor P. falciparum gametocytes and on experimental infection with P. falciparum no sporozoites are detected in Microsporidia MB infected mosquitoes. In addition, we have recently established that Microsporidia MB can be transmitted horizontally from males to females. As a Plasmodium transmission-blocking microbe that is non-virulent, vertically and horizontally transmitted, Microsporidia MB has great potential as a strategy to limit malaria transmission.