TY - JOUR
T1 - Plasmodium falciparum gametocyte culture and mosquito infection through artificial membrane feeding
AU - Tripathi, Abhai K.
AU - Mlambo, Godfree
AU - Kanatani, Sachie
AU - Sinnis, Photini
AU - Dimopoulos, George
N1 - Funding Information:
Authors thank Bloomberg Philanthropies for financial support to Johns Hopkins Malaria Research Institute (JHMRI). This work would not have been possible without the expertise provided by JHMRI insect and parasitology core facilities.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 JoVE Journal of Visualized Experiments.
PY - 2020/7
Y1 - 2020/7
N2 - Malaria remains one of the most important public health problems, causing significant morbidity and mortality. Malaria is a mosquito borne disease transmitted through an infectious bite from the female Anopheles mosquito. Malaria control will eventually rely on a multitude of approaches, which includes ways to block transmission to, through and from mosquitoes. To study mosquito stages of malaria parasites in the laboratory, we have optimized a protocol to culture highly infectious Plasmodium falciparum gametocytes, a parasite stage required for transmission from the human host to the mosquito vector. P. falciparum gametocytes mature through five morphologically distinct steps, which takes approximately 1-2 weeks. Gametocyte culture described in this protocol is completed in 15 days and are infectious to mosquitoes from days 15-18. These protocols were developed to maintain a continuous cycle of infection competent gametocytes and to maintain uninterrupted supply of mosquito stages of the parasite. Here, we describe the methodology of gametocyte culture and how to infect mosquitoes with these parasites using glass membrane feeders.
AB - Malaria remains one of the most important public health problems, causing significant morbidity and mortality. Malaria is a mosquito borne disease transmitted through an infectious bite from the female Anopheles mosquito. Malaria control will eventually rely on a multitude of approaches, which includes ways to block transmission to, through and from mosquitoes. To study mosquito stages of malaria parasites in the laboratory, we have optimized a protocol to culture highly infectious Plasmodium falciparum gametocytes, a parasite stage required for transmission from the human host to the mosquito vector. P. falciparum gametocytes mature through five morphologically distinct steps, which takes approximately 1-2 weeks. Gametocyte culture described in this protocol is completed in 15 days and are infectious to mosquitoes from days 15-18. These protocols were developed to maintain a continuous cycle of infection competent gametocytes and to maintain uninterrupted supply of mosquito stages of the parasite. Here, we describe the methodology of gametocyte culture and how to infect mosquitoes with these parasites using glass membrane feeders.
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U2 - 10.3791/61426
DO - 10.3791/61426
M3 - Article
C2 - 32716382
AN - SCOPUS:85087809086
SN - 1940-087X
VL - 2020
SP - 1
EP - 23
JO - Journal of Visualized Experiments
JF - Journal of Visualized Experiments
IS - 161
M1 - e61426
ER -