Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.
Active Motif, Inc.

Site Tools

  • AAAS
  • Subscribe
  • Feedback

Site Search

Search Advanced

Science 30 June 2000:
Vol. 288. no. 5475, pp. 2376 - 2379
DOI: 10.1126/science.288.5475.2376
Prev | Table of Contents | Next

Reports

Malaria Parasite Development in a Drosophila Model

David Schneider, 1* Mohammed Shahabuddin 2

Malaria is a devastating public health menace, killing over one million people every year and infecting about half a billion. Here it is shown that the protozoan Plasmodium gallinaceum, a close relative of the human malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum, can develop in the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster. Plasmodium gallinaceum ookinetes injected into the fly developed into sporozoites infectious to the vertebrate host with similar kinetics as seen in the mosquito host Aedes aegypti. In the fly, a component of the insect's innate immune system, the macrophage, can destroy Plasmodia. These experiments suggest that Drosophila can be used as a surrogate mosquito for defining the genetic pathways involved in both vector competence and part of the parasite sexual cycle.

1 Whitehead Institute, 9 Cambridge Center, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA.
2 National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892-0425, USA.
*   To whom correspondence should be sent. E-mail: dschneider{at}wi.mit.edu

Read the Full Text


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Laminin and the malaria parasite's journey through the mosquito midgut.
R. B. G. Arrighi, G. Lycett, V. Mahairaki, I. Siden-Kiamos, and C. Louis (2005)
J. Exp. Biol. 208, 2497-2502
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Functional Evolution of the Vertebrate Myb Gene Family: B-Myb, but Neither A-Myb nor c-Myb, Complements Drosophila Myb in Hemocytes.
C. J. Davidson, R. Tirouvanziam, L. A. Herzenberg, and J. S. Lipsick (2005)
Genetics 169, 215-229
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
The Plant Virus Tomato Spotted Wilt Tospovirus Activates the Immune System of Its Main Insect Vector, Frankliniella occidentalis.
R. B. Medeiros, R. d. O. Resende, and A. C. de Avila (2004)
J. Virol. 78, 4976-4982
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Drosophila melanogaster Is a Genetically Tractable Model Host for Mycobacterium marinum.
M. S. Dionne, N. Ghori, and D. S. Schneider (2003)
Infect. Immun. 71, 3540-3550
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Super models.
M. M. Barr (2003)
Physiol Genomics 13, 15-24
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »


ADVERTISEMENT
Click Me!

ADVERTISEMENT
Click Me!

To Advertise     Find Products

Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)