Wild Anopheles funestus mosquito genotypes are permissive for infection with the rodent malaria parasite, Plasmodium berghei.

Background: Malaria parasites undergo complex developmental transitions within the mosquito vector. A commonly used laboratory model for studies of mosquito-malaria interaction is the rodent parasite, P. berghei.

No evidence for positive selection at two potential targets for malaria transmission-blocking vaccines in Anopheles gambiae s.s.

Human malaria causes nearly a million deaths in sub-Saharan Africa each year. The evolution of drug-resistance in the parasite and insecticide resistance in the mosquito vector has complicated control measures and made the need for new control strategies more urgent. Anopheles gambiae s.

Exceptional diversity, maintenance of polymorphism, and recent directional selection on the APL1 malaria resistance genes of Anopheles gambiae.

The three-gene APL1 locus encodes essential components of the mosquito immune defense against malaria parasites. APL1 was originally identified because it lies within a mapped QTL conferring the vector mosquito Anopheles gambiae natural resistance to the human malaria parasite, Plasmodium falciparum, and APL1 genes have subsequently been shown to be involved in defense against several species of Plasmodium. Here, we examine molecular population genetic variation at the APL1 gene cluster in spatially and temporally diverse West African collections of A.

Anopheles gambiae APL1 is a family of variable LRR proteins required for Rel1-mediated protection from the malaria parasite, Plasmodium berghei.

Background: We previously identified by genetic mapping an Anopheles gambiae chromosome region with strong influence over the outcome of malaria parasite infection in nature. Candidate gene studies in the genetic interval, including functional tests using the rodent malaria parasite Plasmodium berghei, identified a novel leucine-rich repeat gene, APL1, with functional activity against P. berghei.