Mosquito that transmits malaria

2002/10/03 Elhuyar Zientzia

• Genetika
• Mikrobiologia
• Osasuna

Although the main culprit of malaria is the parasite Plasmodium falciparum, the participation of the female carabiner Anopheles is essential to infect humans, since the parasite occupies inside one of
the phases of its cycle. Fighting it is one of the ways to control it, but the ways that have been proven so far have not yielded good results. The mosquito has been able to develop resistance to the insecticides used.

Knowing the mosquito genome, many scientists believe that the way to develop new strategies would be opened. For example, this would allow knowing how the mosquito chooses the host or how the parasite cycle is interrupted within the mosquito.

Now the first step has been taken. In fact, the journal Science has just published the genome of the dominant species of the genus Anopheles that contaminates malaria, the mosquito A. ganbiae. In addition, the journal Nature has released the parasite genome and there they have also published another large amount of additional information.

At Zientzia.net you have three articles on the subject:

• The mosquito genome that transmits malaria
• Decoded the genome of the microorganism responsible for malaria
• Malaria, two names for a terrible health problem