Genome-wide association studies to map genetic variation underlying mosquito susceptibility to human malaria

仅2009年一年，疟疾就夺去了近80万人的生命，其中大多数是非洲儿童。以传播疟疾的蚊子为目标已被证明是减少疟疾病例数量的最有效战略。由于蚊子往往在夜间和室内叮咬，近年来增加使用蚊帐有助于减少疟疾病例。然而，有证据表明，一些蚊子在白天和户外叮咬的情况有所增加，而这些地方的蚊帐无法提供保护，因此必须开发新的控制方法。基于一些蚊子比其他蚊子更善于传播疟疾这一事实，该项目旨在使用一种密切检查蚊子基因组的技术来调查这些蚊子基因组成的差异。这种比较和后续测试将确定与蚊子携带最致命的人类疟疾的能力有关的基因。发现对疟疾传播有重大影响的蚊子基因，是朝着开发在蚊子体内针对寄生虫的药物和疫苗这一有希望的战略迈出的重要一步。

Malaria killed nearly 800,000 people in 2009 alone, mostly children in Africa. Targeting the mosquitoes that transmit the disease has proven to be the most effective strategy towards reducing the number of malaria cases. As mosquitoes tend to bite at night and indoors, the increased use of bednets in recent years has contributed to the decrease of malaria cases. However, some mosquitoes are showing evidence of increased biting in the daytime and outdoors where bednets offer no protection, so new methods of control must be developed. Based on the fact that some mosquitoes are better malaria transmitters than others, this project aims to investigate the differences in the genetic make-up of these mosquitoes using a technology that intimately examines the mosquito genome. This comparison and follow-up tests will identify genes that are associated with mosquito capacity to carry the most deadly of the human malarias. Discovering the mosquito genes that have a big impact on malaria transmission is an essential step towards the promising strategy of developing drugs and vaccines that target the parasite while it is in the mosquito.