Transgenic anopheline mosquitoes impaired in transmission of a malaria parasite

Junitsu Ito, Anil Ghosh, Luciano A. Moreira, Ernst A. Wimmer and Marcelo Jacobs-Lorena ()
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Junitsu Ito: Case Western Reserve University, Department of Genetics
Anil Ghosh: Case Western Reserve University, Department of Genetics
Luciano A. Moreira: Case Western Reserve University, Department of Genetics
Ernst A. Wimmer: Universitätsstrasse 30
Marcelo Jacobs-Lorena: Case Western Reserve University, Department of Genetics

Nature, 2002, vol. 417, issue 6887, 452-455

Abstract: Abstract Malaria is estimated to cause 0.7 to 2.7 million deaths per year, but the actual figures could be substantially higher owing to under-reporting and difficulties in diagnosis1. If no new control measures are developed, the malaria death toll is projected to double in the next 20 years1. Efforts to control the disease are hampered by drug resistance in the Plasmodium parasites, insecticide resistance in mosquitoes, and the lack of an effective vaccine. Because mosquitoes are obligatory vectors for malaria transmission, the spread of malaria could be curtailed by rendering them incapable of transmitting parasites. Many of the tools required for the genetic manipulation of mosquito competence for malaria transmission have been developed. Foreign genes can now be introduced into the germ line of both culicine2,3 and anopheline4 mosquitoes, and these transgenes can be expressed in a tissue-specific manner5,6. Here we report on the use of such tools to generate transgenic mosquitoes that express antiparasitic genes in their midgut epithelium, thus rendering them inefficient vectors for the disease. These findings have significant implications for the development of new strategies for malaria control.

Date: 2002
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DOI: 10.1038/417452a

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