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Constructing an Antiplasmodial Polypeptide in Transgenic Bacteria to Decrease Parasitemia in Plasmodium ‐infected Mosquitoes
Author(s) -
Van Sprang Angelina,
Guido Marisa,
Lampe David
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.2021.35.s1.01927
Subject(s) - effector , biology , plasmodium berghei , anopheles stephensi , anopheles gambiae , midgut , plasmid , virology , transgene , microbiology and biotechnology , malaria , aedes aegypti , gene , biochemistry , immunology , botany , larva
Malaria is an infectious disease caused by parasites in the genus Plasmodium, which are transmitted by Anopheles mosquitoes. The long‐term goal of this research is to create transgenic bacteria that express antiplasmodial effector proteins which can be introduced to the mosquito through a sugar solution. To test parasite killing efficiency, the mosquitoes will be blood fed on a Plasmodium berghei infected bloodmeal. Efficacy of parasite killing is determined by the number of oocysts present in the mosquito midgut after 19 days. This project aims to construct a polypeptide consisting of multiple antiplasmodial effectors to be expressed within mosquitoes. Previously, we inserted a strong terminator into the plasmid pCG18.Hem. This was achieved by inserting the terminator downstream of the bloodmeal‐inducible (BMI) promoter called hemin and the antiplasmodial effector scorpine and is denoted pCG18.Hem.term . Following successful terminator insertion, the current focus of this project is to use pCG18.Hem.term as a backbone to engineer new transgenic plasmids with several different effector proteins. Two plasmids have already been successfully constructed by inserting effector peptides downstream of scorpine ; pAVS1 which contains a flexible glycine‐serine (Gly‐Ser) linker and pAVS2 which contains both the flexible linker and the antiplasmodial effector protein SM1 . Next, the focus will be to insert the flexible linker downstream of SM1 and continue inserting other antiplasmodials. This will eventually create an antiplasmodial polypeptide that can be transformed into a bacterial symbiont of mosquitoes fed to mosquitoes via a sugar solution and expressed in the midgut of the mosquito to decrease overall parasitemia.