10.5061/DRYAD.8NR13
Pollitt, Laura C.
University of Edinburgh
Pennsylvania State University
Bram, Joshua T.
Pennsylvania State University
Blanford, Simon
Pennsylvania State University
Jones, Matthew J.
Pennsylvania State University
Read, Andrew F.
National Institutes of Health
Pennsylvania State University
Data from: Existing infection facilitates establishment and density of
malaria parasites in their mosquito vector
Dryad
dataset
2016
Anopheles stephensi
Malaria
mosquito
transmission
vector
Mixed strain infection
Plasmodium chabaudi
2016-06-18T00:00:00Z
2016-06-18T00:00:00Z
en
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.ppat.1005003
248143 bytes
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CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication
Very little is known about how vector-borne pathogens interact within
their vector and how this impacts transmission. Here we show that
mosquitoes can accumulate mixed strain malaria infections after feeding on
multiple hosts. We found that parasites have a greater chance of
establishing and reach higher densities if another strain is already
present in a mosquito. Mixed infections contained more parasites but these
larger populations did not have a detectable impact on vector survival.
Together these results suggest that mosquitoes taking multiple infective
bites may disproportionally contribute to malaria transmission. This will
increase rates of mixed infections in vertebrate hosts, with implications
for the evolution of parasite virulence and the spread of drug-resistant
strains. Moreover, control measures that reduce parasite prevalence in
vertebrate hosts will reduce the likelihood of mosquitoes taking multiple
infective feeds, and thus disproportionally reduce transmission. More
generally, our study shows that the types of strain interactions detected
in vertebrate hosts cannot necessarily be extrapolated to vectors.
survival of mosquitoesSurvival and infection status data for
mosquitoes.vector.mortality.csvParasite densities in primary
infectionsFirst.infection.as.focal.csvEstablishment of infection from
second feedData showing that mosquitoes can accumulate infections from
multiple feeds.establishment.of.2nd.infection.csvParasite density in
infections established from a secondary feeddensity.of.2nd.infections.csv