Symbiotic microsporidia of the Anopheles mosquito that blocks malaria transmission in its host

Malaria still remains a huge problem especially in sub-Saharan Africa. There has been a rising need in developing more sustainable and innovative tools. With this in mind, our research team at the International Center of Insect Physiology and Ecology (icipe) sought to identify naturally-occurring malaria-blocking microbes in the Anopheles mosquitoes across several regions of Central and Western Kenyan. This led to the discovery of a new fungi-like obligate intracellular microsporidian species that had not been documented before then and was therefore termed Microsporidia MB. We have shown that this microsporidia symbiont isolated from the malaria mosquito- Anopheles arabiensis, has the capacity to block Plasmodium oocyst development in the mosquito thereby blocking malaria transmission. It is therefore a potential bio-control tool. We have further shown that it is both maternally transmitted from mother to offspring and sexually from infected male to uninfected female or vice versa. Moreover, the symbiont has no adverse effects on the host's health and is mainly localized in mosquito gonads. This project aimed to assemble the first draft genome of the symbiont isolated from ovarian tissues of Anopheles arabiensis progeny of wild-caught mothers with the aim of unraveling its genetic makeup and providing insight into its mechanism of survival in the host.

疟疾至今仍是重大公共卫生挑战，在撒哈拉以南非洲地区尤为严峻。当前，研发更具可持续性与创新性的疟疾防控工具的需求日益迫切。有鉴于此，我们来自国际昆虫生理学与生态学中心（International Center of Insect Physiology and Ecology, icipe）的研究团队，在肯尼亚中西部多个区域的按蚊（Anopheles）体内探寻天然存在的疟疾阻断微生物。
此项研究最终发现了一种此前从未被记载的类真菌专性胞内微孢子虫新物种，并将其命名为微孢子虫MB（Microsporidia MB）。我们已证实，从疟疾媒介阿拉伯按蚊（Anopheles arabiensis）中分离得到的该共生微孢子虫，可阻断疟原虫在蚊体内的卵囊发育，进而阻断疟疾的传播，因此具备成为潜在生物防治工具的潜力。
进一步研究表明，该共生微生物既可通过母系途径由亲代雌蚊传递给子代，也可通过性接触在受感染雄蚊与未受感染雌蚊之间双向传播。此外，该共生菌对宿主健康无不良影响，且主要定位于按蚊的生殖腺中。
本数据集旨在组装从野生捕获雌蚊子代的卵巢组织中分离得到的该共生菌的首张基因组草图，以解析其遗传组成，并为阐明其在宿主内的存活机制提供研究思路。