Abstract
Plasmodium parasites experience significant bottlenecks as they transit through the mosquito and are transmitted to their mammalian host. Oocyst prevalence on mosquito midguts and sporozoite prevalence in salivary glands are nevertheless commonly used to confirm successful malaria transmission, assuming that these are reliable indicators of the mosquito's capacity to give rise to secondary infections. Here we discuss recent insights in sporogonic development and transmission bottlenecks for Plasmodium. We highlight critical gaps in our knowledge and frame their importance in understanding the human and mosquito reservoirs of infection. A better understanding of the events that lead to successful inoculation of infectious sporozoites by mosquitoes is critical to designing effective interventions to shrink the malaria map.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 705-716 |
Number of pages | 12 |
Journal | Trends in parasitology |
Volume | 36 |
Issue number | 8 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Aug 2020 |
Keywords
- Anopheles
- gametocyte
- mosquitoes
- oocyst
- salivary glands
- sporozoite
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Parasitology
- Infectious Diseases