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Science 4 October 2002:
Vol. 298. no. 5591, pp. 213 - 216
DOI: 10.1126/science.1073420

Reports

Genetic Loci Affecting Resistance to Human Malaria Parasites in a West African Mosquito Vector Population

Oumou Niaré,12* Kyriacos Markianos,3* Jennifer Volz,5* Frederick Oduol,1 Abdoulaye Touré,2 Magaran Bagayoko,2 Djibril Sangaré,2 Sekou F. Traoré,2 Rui Wang,5 Claudia Blass,5 Guimogo Dolo,2 Madama Bouaré,2 Fotis C. Kafatos,5 Leonid Kruglyak,34 Yeya T. Touré,2 Kenneth D. Vernick1dagger

Successful propagation of the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum within a susceptible mosquito vector is a prerequisite for the transmission of malaria. A field-based genetic analysis of the major human malaria vector, Anopheles gambiae, has revealed natural factors that reduce the transmission of P. falciparum. Differences in P. falciparum oocyst numbers between mosquito isofemale families fed on the same infected blood indicated a large genetic component affecting resistance to the parasite, and genome-wide scanning in pedigrees of wild mosquitoes detected segregating resistance alleles. The apparently high natural frequency of resistance alleles suggests that malaria parasites (or a similar pathogen) exert a significant selective pressure on vector populations.

1 Department of Medical and Molecular Parasitology, New York University School of Medicine, 341 East 25th Street, New York, NY 10010, USA.
2 Département d'Epidémiologie des Affectations Parasitaires, Faculté de Médecine, de Pharmacie et d'Odonto-Stomatologie, Boite Postale 1805, Bamako, Mali.
3 Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, 1100 Fairview Avenue North, Seattle, WA 98109, USA.
4 Howard Hughes Medical Institute, 4000 Jones Bridge Road, Chevy Chase, MD 20815, USA.
5 European Molecular Biology Laboratories, Meyerhofstrasse 1, 69117 Heidelberg, Germany.
*   These authors contributed equally to this work.

dagger    To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: kenneth.vernick{at}nyu.edu


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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)