Employing the Mosquito Microflora for Disease Control

The transmission of mosquito-vectored human pathogens has continued to exert a global public health burden despite control measures. Recent advances in our understanding of the mosquito microflora have demonstrated that microbes play a major role in determining the outcome of mosquito infection by human pathogens. Characterization of mosquito symbionts has elucidated molecular mechanisms responsible for the inhibition of pathogen infection and has provided natural microbial candidates for the development of strategies to interrupt disease transmission. Furthermore, some mosquito symbionts can also be genetically modified to enhance their ability to antagonize pathogen infection in a process known as paratransgenesis, a next-generation approach to interrupt the transmission of mosquito-borne disease.