Division of Cell and Molecular Biology, Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom.
PLoS One. 2013 Oct 1;8(10):e77619. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0077619. eCollection 2013.
The resident gut flora is known to have significant impacts on the life history of the host organism. Endosymbiotic bacterial species in the Anopheles mosquito gut are potent modulators of sexual development of the malaria parasite, Plasmodium, and thus proposed as potential control agents of malaria transmission.
Here we report a melanotic pathology in the major African malaria vector Anopheles gambiae, caused by the dominant mosquito endosymbiont Elizabethkingiameningoseptica. Transfer of melanised tissues into the haemolymph of healthy adult mosquitoes or direct haemolymph inoculation with isolated E. meningoseptica bacteria were the only means for transmission and de novo formation of melanotic lesions, specifically in the fat body tissues of recipient individuals. We show that E. meningoseptica can be vertically transmitted from eggs to larvae and that E. meningoseptica-mono-associated mosquitoes display significant mortality, which is further enhanced upon Plasmodium infection, suggesting a synergistic impact of E. meningoseptica and Plasmodium on mosquito survival.
The high pathogenicity and permanent association of E. meningoseptica with An. Gambiae through vertical transmission constitute attractive characteristics towards the potential design of novel mosquito/malaria biocontrol strategies.
已知宿主肠道内的常驻菌群对宿主生物的生活史有重大影响。疟原虫（Plasmodium）在按蚊肠道内的共生细菌是其性发育的有力调节剂，因此被提议作为疟疾传播的潜在控制剂。
本研究报告了一种在主要的非洲疟蚊按蚊（Anopheles gambiae）中发生的黑色素病理，由优势蚊共生菌伊丽莎白氏菌（Elizabethkingiameningoseptica）引起。将黑色素组织转移到健康成蚊的血淋巴中，或直接用分离的 E. meningoseptica 细菌进行血淋巴接种，是传播和从头形成黑色素病变的唯一途径，特别是在接受个体的脂肪体组织中。本研究表明，E. meningoseptica 可以从卵垂直传播到幼虫，并且与 E. meningoseptica 单共生的蚊子表现出显著的死亡率，而在感染疟原虫后死亡率进一步增加，这表明 E. meningoseptica 和疟原虫对蚊子生存有协同影响。
E. meningoseptica 对按蚊具有高致病性和永久性的垂直传播关联，这构成了设计新型蚊子/疟疾生物控制策略的有吸引力的特征。
