AUTHOR=Puchot Nicolas , Lecoq Marie-Thérèse , Carinci Romuald , Duchemin Jean Bernard , Gendrin Mathilde , Bourgouin Catherine 

TITLE=Establishment of a colony of Anopheles darlingi from French Guiana for vector competence studies on malaria transmission

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Tropical Diseases

VOLUME=3

YEAR=2022

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/tropical-diseases/articles/10.3389/fitd.2022.949300

DOI=10.3389/fitd.2022.949300

ISSN=2673-7515

ABSTRACT=<p><italic>Anopheles darlingi</italic> is a major vector of both <italic>Plasmodium falciparum</italic> and <italic>Plasmodium vivax</italic> in South and Central America including French Guiana. However, the vector competence and physiology of this mosquito species have been scarcely studied due to difficulties in rearing it in the laboratory. Here, we report the successful establishment of a robust colony, from a mosquito collection in French Guiana. We describe our mosquito colonization procedure with relevant information on environmental conditions, mating ability, larval development, and survival, recorded over the first six critical generations. Experimental infection showed that our <italic>An. darlingi</italic> colony has a moderate permissiveness to <italic>in vitro</italic> produced gametocytes of the <italic>P. falciparum</italic> NF54 strain originating from Africa. This colony, which has reached its 21st generation, will allow further characterization of <italic>An. darlingi</italic> life-history traits and of <italic>Plasmodium</italic>–mosquito interactions with South American malaria parasites.</p>