Abstract
BackgroundSome Plasmodium species have the ability to modify the behaviour of their mosquito vectors. This is thought to be an adaptive strategy that maximizes the parasite’s transmission.MethodsThe effect of Plasmodium relictum infections on the blood feeding behaviour of Culex pipiens quinquefasciatus mosquitoes was monitored.ResultsPlasmodium infections did not alter the proportion of blood fed mosquitoes but they did affect the dynamics and the size of the blood meal. Sporozoite-infected mosquitoes completed their blood meal 1.3 times later than uninfected mosquitoes and ended up with smaller blood meals.ConclusionThe potential adaptive nature of this manipulation of mosquito behaviour is discussed in the light of previous studies on other malaria models.
Highlights
Some Plasmodium species have the ability to modify the behaviour of their mosquito vectors
P. relictum infection has a significant effect on the blood feeding dynamics (HR ± s.e. = 0.26 ± 0.098, χ12 = 6.93, P = 0.0083; Fig. 1)
Mosquito size explained part of the variation in the blood meal size (F1,400 = 8.34 P = 0.004) with bigger mosquitoes taking a larger amount of blood. In both infected and uninfected mosquitoes, the size of the blood meal decreased with time, i.e. mosquitoes that fed later took smaller blood meals. These results show that the infection of Culex pipiens quinquefasciatus by P. relictum does not influence the proportion of blood fed mosquitoes retrieved at the end of this experiment
Summary
Some Plasmodium species have the ability to modify the behaviour of their mosquito vectors. Several studies have shown how Plasmodium parasites have evolved strategies to modify the foraging and feeding behaviour of their mosquito vectors in order to enhance malaria transmission [1,2,3]. This adaptive manipulation of the behaviour of mosquitoes may take place at two different steps of the malaria life cycle. Several studies found that uninfected mosquitoes show a preference for feeding on infected hosts (but see contradictory results obtained by [7] and [8]) This preference has been shown for human [9], avian [10, 11], and rodent Plasmodium parasites [12]. Malaria-infected Anopheles mosquitoes express enhanced attraction to human odours [13] and are more likely to approach and to attempt to feed
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