RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Two avian <em>Plasmodium</em> species trigger different transcriptional responses on their vector <em>Culex pipiens</em>
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 2023.01.24.525339
DO 10.1101/2023.01.24.525339
A1 M Garrigós
A1 G Ylla
A1 J Martínez-de la Puente
A1 J Figuerola
A1 MJ Ruiz-López
YR 2023
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2023/01/24/2023.01.24.525339.abstract
AB Malaria is a mosquito-borne disease caused by protozoans of the genus Plasmodium that affects both humans and wildlife. The fitness consequences of infections by avian malaria are well known in birds, however, little information exists on its impact on mosquitoes. Here we study how Culex pipiens mosquitoes transcriptionally respond to infection by two different Plasmodium species, P. relictum and P. cathemerium, differing in their virulence (mortality rate) and transmissibility (parasite presence in exposed mosquitoes’ saliva). We study the mosquito response to the infection at three critical stages of parasite development: formation of ookinetes at 24 hours post-infection (hpi), the release of sporozoites into the hemocoel at 10 days post-infection (dpi), and storage of sporozoites in the salivary glands at 21dpi. For each time point, we characterized the gene expression of mosquitoes infected with each P. relictum and P. cathemerium and mosquitoes fed on an uninfected bird and, subsequently, compared their transcriptomic responses. Differential gene expression analysis showed most of the transcriptomic changes occurred during the early infection stage (24 hpi), especially when comparing P. relictum and P. cathemerium infected mosquitoes. Differentially expressed genes in mosquitoes infected with each species were related mainly to the immune response, trypsin, and other serine-proteases metabolism. We conclude that these differences in response likely underlay the differential virulence and transmissibility previously observed in P. relictum and P. cathemerium in Cx. pipiens.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.