Domingos A, Pinheiro-Silva R, Couto J, do Rosário V, de la Fuente J
Instituto de Higiene e Medicina Tropical (IHMT), Lisboa, Portugal.
Global Health and Tropical Medicine (GHMT), Instituto de Higiene e Medicina Tropical (IHMT), Lisboa, Portugal.
Insect Mol Biol. 2017 Apr;26(2):140-151. doi: 10.1111/imb.12289. Epub 2017 Jan 9.
Mosquitoes are important vectors of several pathogens and thereby contribute to the spread of diseases, with social, economic and public health impacts. Amongst the approximately 450 species of Anopheles, about 60 are recognized as vectors of human malaria, the most important parasitic disease. In Africa, Anopheles gambiae is the main malaria vector mosquito. Current malaria control strategies are largely focused on drugs and vector control measures such as insecticides and bed-nets. Improvement of current, and the development of new, mosquito-targeted malaria control methods rely on a better understanding of mosquito vector biology. An organism's transcriptome is a reflection of its physiological state and transcriptomic analyses of different conditions that are relevant to mosquito vector competence can therefore yield important information. Transcriptomic analyses have contributed significant information on processes such as blood-feeding parasite-vector interaction, insecticide resistance, and tissue- and stage-specific gene regulation, thereby facilitating the path towards the development of new malaria control methods. Here, we discuss the main applications of transcriptomic analyses in An. gambiae that have led to a better understanding of mosquito vector competence.
蚊子是多种病原体的重要传播媒介，从而导致疾病传播，对社会、经济和公共卫生产生影响。在大约450种按蚊中，约有60种被认为是人类疟疾（最重要的寄生虫病）的传播媒介。在非洲，冈比亚按蚊是主要的疟疾传播媒介蚊子。目前的疟疾控制策略主要集中在药物以及杀虫剂和蚊帐等病媒控制措施上。改进现有针对蚊子的疟疾控制方法并开发新方法，依赖于对蚊子传播媒介生物学的更好理解。生物体的转录组反映了其生理状态，因此对与蚊子传播能力相关的不同条件进行转录组分析可以产生重要信息。转录组分析为诸如吸血、寄生虫与媒介相互作用、抗杀虫剂以及组织和阶段特异性基因调控等过程提供了重要信息，从而推动了新疟疾控制方法的开发进程。在这里，我们讨论转录组分析在冈比亚按蚊中的主要应用，这些应用有助于更好地理解蚊子的传播能力。
