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Driving Mosquito Refractoriness to Plasmodium Falciparum With Engineered Symbiotic Bacteria Publisher Pubmed



Wang S1 ; Dossantos ALA2, 3 ; Huang W2 ; Liu KC2, 4 ; Oshaghi MA2, 5 ; Wei G1 ; Agre P2 ; Jacobslorena M2
Authors
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Authors Affiliations
  1. 1. CAS Key Laboratory of Insect Developmental and Evolutionary Biology, Institute of Plant Physiology and Ecology, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, 200032, China
  2. 2. Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology, Malaria Research Institute, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, 21205, MD, United States
  3. 3. Instituto de Bioquimica Medica Leopoldo De Meis, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, 21941-902, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
  4. 4. Office of Regulatory Affairs, U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Pacific Regional Laboratory Northwest, 22201 23rd Drive Southeast, Bothell, 98021, WA, United States
  5. 5. Department of Medical Entomology and Vector Control, School of Public Health, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Post Office Box 14155-6446, Tehran, Iran

Source: Science Published:2017


Abstract

The huge burden of malaria in developing countries urgently demands the development of novel approaches to fight this deadly disease. Although engineered symbiotic bacteria have been shown to render mosquitoes resistant to the parasite, the challenge remains to effectively introduce such bacteria into mosquito populations. We describe a Serratia bacterium strain (AS1) isolated from Anopheles ovaries that stably colonizes the mosquito midgut, female ovaries, and male accessory glands and spreads rapidly throughout mosquito populations. Serratia AS1 was genetically engineered for secretion of anti-Plasmodium effector proteins, and the recombinant strains inhibit development of Plasmodium falciparum in mosquitoes. © 2017, American Association for the Advancement of Science. All rights reserved.