Assessing the burden of submicroscopic Plasmodium infections in a pre-elimination malaria setting in sub-Saharan Africa, Guinea-Bissau.

Background: Submicroscopic Plasmodium infections can be a source of persistent malaria transmission. The aim of this study was to assess their frequency, distribution, morbidity and associated factors in a pre-elimination malaria setting in sub-Saharan Africa, Guinea-Bissau, where the Plasmodium falciparum is the predominant Plasmodium species.

Methods: Dried fingerprick whole blood samples from 601 participants in the 2017 national, household-based, cross-sectional survey to estimate malaria prevalence were subjected to DNA extraction.

Size does matter: intraspecific geometric morphometric analysis of wings of the blowfly Chrysomya albiceps (Diptera: Calliphoridae).

Blowflies have forensic, sanitary and veterinary importance, as well as being pollinators, parasitoids and ecological bioindicators. There is still little work with real data and from experiments assessing the relationship between blowflies' morphologic features and environmental and demographic factors. The present work tests whether the variation, in the shape and size, of Chrysomya albiceps (Wiedemann, 1819) wings is influenced by the following factors: 1) time; 2) temperature; 3) sex and; 4) different types of carcasses (pig, dog/cat and whale).

Genetics of lineage diversification and the evolution of host usage in the economically important wheat curl mite, Aceria tosichella Keifer, 1969.

Background: Understanding the mechanisms that underlie the diversification of herbivores through interactions with their hosts is important for their diversity assessment and identification of expansion events, particularly in a human-altered world where evolutionary processes can be exacerbated. We studied patterns of host usage and genetic structure in the wheat curl mite complex (WCM), Aceria tosichella, a major pest of the world's grain industry, to identify the factors behind its extensive diversification.

Results: We expanded on previous phylogenetic research, demonstrating deep lineage diversification within the taxon, a complex of distinctive host specialist and generalist lineages more diverse than previously assumed.

Effect of chloroquine on gene expression of Plasmodium yoelii nigeriensis during its sporogonic development in the mosquito vector.

Background: The anti-malarial chloroquine can modulate the outcome of infection during the Plasmodium sporogonic development, interfering with Plasmodium gene expression and subsequently, with transmission. The present study sets to identify Plasmodium genes that might be regulated by chloroquine in the mosquito vector.

Methods: Differential display RT-PCR (DDRT-PCR) was used to identify genes expressed during the sporogonic cycle that are regulated by exposure to chloroquine.