Abstract
Malaria is caused by mosquito-borne Plasmodium spp. parasites that must infect and survive within mosquito salivary glands (SGs) prior to host transmission. Recent advances in transcriptomics and the complete genome sequencing of mosquito vectors have increased our knowledge of the SG genes and proteins involved in pathogen infection and transmission. Membrane solute carriers are key proteins involved in drug transport and are useful in the development of new interventions for transmission blocking. Herein, we applied transcriptomics analysis to compare SGs mRNA levels in Anopheles stephensi fed on non-infected and P. berghei-infected mice. The A. stephensi solute carriers prestinA and NDAE1 were up-regulated in response to infection. These molecules are predicted to interact with each other, and are reportedly involved in the maintenance of cell homeostasis. To further evaluate their functions in mosquito survival and parasite infection, these genes were knocked down by RNA interference. Knockdown of prestinA and NDAE1 resulted in reduction of the number of sporozoites in mosquito SGs. Moreover, NDAE1 knockdown strongly impacted mosquito survival, resulting in the death of half of the treated mosquitoes. Overall, our findings indicate the importance of prestinA and NDAE1 in interactions between mosquito SGs and Plasmodium, and suggest the need for further research.
Highlights
Over the last 15 years, massive prevention measures and new treatment tools have greatly decreased the global malaria burden
Our present results suggest that membrane ion transporters in A. stephensi salivary glands (SGs) affect Plasmodium infection, potentially representing new targets for development of measures to block malaria transmission
RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) analysis enabled the production of two catalogs of transcripts corresponding to the P. berghei infected and non-infected SGs, which constitute a body of fundamental information to help with the selection of potential key targets for malaria control
Summary
Over the last 15 years, massive prevention measures and new treatment tools have greatly decreased the global malaria burden. Our present results suggest that membrane ion transporters in A. stephensi SGs affect Plasmodium infection, potentially representing new targets for development of measures to block malaria transmission. A microarray-based experiment revealed the upregulation of 326 transport-related genes among a total of 4978 transcripts from A. gambiae SGs after P. berghei infection[23].
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