AUTHOR=Niu Guodong , Cui Yingjun , Wang Xiaohong , Keleta Yacob , Li Jun 

TITLE=Studies of the Parasite-Midgut Interaction Reveal Plasmodium Proteins Important for Malaria Transmission to Mosquitoes

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Cellular and Infection Microbiology

VOLUME=11

YEAR=2021

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/cellular-and-infection-microbiology/articles/10.3389/fcimb.2021.654216

DOI=10.3389/fcimb.2021.654216

ISSN=2235-2988

ABSTRACT=<p>Malaria transmission relies on parasite-mosquito midgut interaction. The interactive proteins are hypothesized to be ideal targets to block malaria transmission to mosquitoes. We chose 76 genes that contain signal peptide-coding regions and are upregulated and highly abundant at sexual stages. Forty-six of these candidate genes (60%) were cloned and expressed using the baculovirus expression system in insect cells. Six of them, e.g., PF3D7_0303900, PF3D7_0406200 (Pfs16), PF3D7_1204400 (Pfs37), PF3D7_1214800, PF3D7_1239400, and PF3D7_1472800 were discovered to interact with blood-fed mosquito midgut lysate. Previous works showed that among these interactive proteins, knockout the orthologs of Pfs37 or Pfs16 in <italic>P. berghei</italic> reduced oocysts in mosquitoes. Here we further found that anti-Pfs16 polyclonal antibody significantly inhibited <italic>P. falciparum</italic> transmission to <italic>Anopheles gambiae</italic>. Investigating these candidate proteins will improve our understanding of malaria transmission and discover new targets to break malaria transmission.</p>