The ability of Anopheles gambiae mosquitoes to transmit malaria parasites is highly variable and mosquito strains have been found that are entirely resistant to the parasite. The mosquitoes’ immune response to malaria is of more than academic interest; it could offer possibilities for cutting the risk of transmission from mosquito to human.

Researchers of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Germany and INSERM in France set out to identify the genes that control A. gambiae’s resistance to the rodent malaria parasite Plasmodium berghei.

Their results, published in Science, show that that variations in a single gene explain a substantial part of the variability in parasite killing. Confirmation is needed that resistance to P. falciparum and other parasite species that attack humans is similarly determined. Nevertheless, this could be an important advance. As the researchers say, “Understanding the genetic basis of resistance to malaria parasites, as well as how the determinant polymorphisms are maintained and selected in field populations, will be of tremendous importance for the control of malaria transmission”. They also state that the methods they developed to conduct this research could also be useful in moving from a whole region of DNA to an actual causative gene.

While Science is not an open access publication, the PubMed abstract and commentaries from EurekAlert and GenomeWeb provide further information about the research.