Aguilar Ruth, Das Suchismita, Dong Yuemei, Dimopoulos George
W, Harry Feinstone Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology, Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University, 615N, Wolfe Street, Baltimore, MD 21205-2179, USA.
BMC Genomics. 2007 Dec 5;8:451. doi: 10.1186/1471-2164-8-451.
Plasmodium infection has been shown to compromise the fitness of the mosquito vector, reducing its fecundity and longevity. However, from an evolutionary perspective, the impact of Plasmodium infection as a selective pressure on the mosquito is largely unknown.
In the present study we have addressed the effect of a continuous Plasmodium berghei infection on the resistance to infection and global gene expression in Anopheles gambiae. Exposure of A. gambiae to P. berghei-infected blood and infection for 16 generations resulted in a decreased susceptibility to infection, altered constitutive expression levels for approximately 2.4% of the mosquito's total transcriptome and a lower basal level of immune genes expression, including several anti-Plasmodium factors. The infection-responsiveness for several defense genes was elevated in the P. berghei exposed mosquito colonies.
Our study establishes the existence of a selective pressure exerted by the parasite P. berghei on the malaria vector A. gambiae that results in a decreased permissiveness to infection and changes in the mosquito transcriptome regulation that suggest a decreased constitutive immune gene activity but a more potent immune response upon Plasmodium challenge.
疟原虫感染已被证明会损害蚊子媒介的健康，降低其繁殖力和寿命。然而，从进化的角度来看，疟原虫感染作为一种选择压力对蚊子的影响在很大程度上尚不清楚。
在本研究中，我们探讨了持续感染伯氏疟原虫对冈比亚按蚊感染抗性和全基因组表达的影响。将冈比亚按蚊暴露于感染伯氏疟原虫的血液中并连续感染16代，导致其对感染的易感性降低，约2.4%的蚊子总转录组的组成型表达水平发生改变，免疫基因表达的基础水平降低，包括几种抗疟原虫因子。在暴露于伯氏疟原虫的蚊子群体中，几种防御基因的感染反应性有所提高。
我们的研究证实了疟原虫伯氏疟原虫对疟疾媒介冈比亚按蚊施加的选择压力的存在，这导致其对感染的易感性降低，以及蚊子转录组调控的变化，这表明组成型免疫基因活性降低，但在疟原虫攻击时免疫反应更强。
