Targets of mosquito immune responses against the human malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum

Objectives

The overall aim is to characterise the malaria parasite targets of mosquito innate immune responses in a mosquito line with reduced susceptibility to parasite infection.

The specific aims are:

• To characterise the stage(s) of P. falciparum that are killed by a new, non-melanising, line of An. gambiae refractory to infection;
• To examine the parasite genotype-specificity of the refractoriness.
• To examine the inheritance of susceptibility to mosquito innate immune responses of progeny clones of a genetic cross between two P. falciparum lines differing in their ability to infect the refractory line.
• To identify genetic loci within the P. falciparum genome associated with resistance/susceptibility to mosquito immune responses.