In vitro damage of cultured ookinetes of Plasmodium gallinaceum by digestive proteinases from susceptible Aedes aegypti.

After exposure to extracts from blood fed A. aegupti cultured ookinetes of P. gallinaceum were damaged to various, defined extents. Immature ookinetes were found to be more sensitive to damage than mature ones. The damage was dependent on the digestion time after which the Aedes extracts had been prepared and could be correlated with the proteolytic activity in the extracts. Control experiments demonstrated that the factors responsible for damage were neither present in unfed mosquitoes nor in blood alone and that the damage was not a result of osmotic stress. After the treatment of the Aedes extracts with lima bean trypsin inhibitor the ookinete damage was much less, indicating that the Aedes trypsin was the major agent of damage. These results were supported by experiments in which the tryptic activity of the extracts was eliminated by thermal denaturation. It is concluded that in the mosquito midgut most of the ookinetes are damaged by digestive enzymes and that this is one factor leading to the discrepancy between the number of ingested macrogametocytes and the number of oocysts which is usually found in nature. It seems that the only ookinetes which have a chance of surviving are those which develop in the centre of the blood clot, away from the site of enzyme action.