Driving mosquito refractoriness to Plasmodium falciparum with engineered symbiotic bacteria

Sibao Wang, André L.A. Dos-Santos, Wei Huang, Kun Connie Liu, Mohammad Ali Oshaghi, Ge Wei, Peter Agre, Marcelo Jacobs-Lorena

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

83 Scopus citations

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.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)1399-1402
Number of pages4
JournalScience
Volume357
Issue number6358
DOIs
StatePublished - Sep 29 2017

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General

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