stephensi (Panel A) or An. gambiae (Panel B) females infected with P. yoelii. Live parasites are detected with green fluorescence (left panels), and those melanized are in DIC images (right panels). Panel C, Number of live (green dots) or melanized (black dots) parasites present on individual midguts 6 days PI. The median number of oocysts is indicated by the Protein Tyrosine Kinase inhibitor horizontal line.

Distributions are compared using the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test; n = number of mosquitoes; P values lower than 0.05 are consider to be significantly different. Panel D, The number of live (green dots) and melanized (black dots) P. yoelii parasites on individual An. gambiae midguts is shown connected by a line. In most mosquitoes, either all parasites are alive or all are melanized. There are very few midguts in which both live and melanized parasites

Selleck YM155 are observed. Table 2 An. gambiae (G3) and An. stephensi (Nijmegen Sda500) infections with P. yoelii. Mosquito species Saracatinib clinical trial Prevalence of infection Median live oocyst number Oocyst range % of midguts with melanized parasites % of midguts with live and melanized parasites An. gambiae n = 59 52% 1 0–65 59% 10% An. stephensi n = 47 100% 51 2–302 0% 0% Effect of silencing An. stephensi orthologs on P. yoelii infection Six genes whose phenotypes differ when An. gambiae is infected with P. berghei or P. falciparum were examined. An. stephensi orthologs of OXR1, Hsc-3, GSTT1, and GSTT2, as well as two other genes previously reported in the literature (LRIM1 and CTL4), Fossariinae were silenced, and the effect on P. yoelii infection was evaluated. Five of the six genes

tested had similar effects in the An. gambiae-P. falciparum and the An. stephensi-P. yoelii systems (Table 1). Silencing OXR1, LRIM1, CTL4, or GSTT1 had no effect, while GSTT2 and Hsc-3 silencing enhanced P. yoelii infection in An. stephensi (Figure 4 and Table 1). Hsc-3 was the only gene that gave a different phenotype between An. gambiae-P. falciparum and An. stephensi-P. yoelii. Conversely, this was also the only gene that had a similar phenotype in An. gambiae infected with P. berghei and in P. yoelii-infected An. stephensi. The expression of heat shock proteins is temperature dependent; thus the differences in the effect of Hsc-3 silencing in mosquitoes infected with different Plasmodium species could be due to physiologic differences resulting from the temperature at which infected mosquitoes are kept. For example, Hsc-3 silencing decreases P. falciparum infection (26°C) in An. gambiae but results in a significant but mild increase in P. yoelii infection (24°C) in An. stephensi and a strong enhancement of P. berghei infection (21°C) in An. gambiae. Interestingly, a decrease in parasite number is also observed in the Drosophila line in which a P-element has been inserted close to the Hsc-3 gene. In the fly system, in vitro cultured P.