Invention novelty: This material is a transgenic fungus which targets the sporozoites that cause malaria in the salivary glands of mosquitoes. The fungus is taken up by direct contact with the mosquito and inhibits Plasmodium development.
Value Proposition: Unmodified, Metarhizium anisopliae kills mosquitoes slowly. If mosquitoes are infected by the fungus shortly after ingesting malaria causing Plasmodium transmission potential is reduced by 98%. Unfortunately, it is difficult to ensure prompt fungal infection. It has been shown that the modified M. anisopliae detailed here expresses the encoded transgenic information within 20 minutes, and that the formed products interact with sporozoites and the salivary glands. This modification will reduce transmission potential of malaria prior to mosquito death. This modified M. anisopliae can be used interchangeably with currently available chemical insecticides, persists on some surfaces for months and can also be used to combat insecticide resistant strains and insects with advanced malarial infections.
Technical Details: Johns Hopkins and University of Maryland researchers have developed a transgenic fungus to reduce the transmission of malaria by targeting sporozoite development in mosquitoes. M. anisopliae is a fungus that infects mosquitoes and proliferates in their hemolymphs, eventually killing them. By modifying this fungus to express molecules that target sporozoites in the hemolymphs and salivary glands, the ability to transmit malaria is significantly reduced. Preliminary results have shown that the transgenic information is expressed in a little as 20 minutes. This would reduce transmission of malaria while allowing the mosquitoes to live long enough to continue a part of their reproductive cycle, which will limit the extent to which M. anisopliae resistant strains develop.
Data Availability: The recombinant M. anisopliae has been synthesized and tested for efficacy in mosquitoes.
Publication(s)/Associated Cases: Fang W, Vega-Rodrfguez J, Ghosh AK, Jacobs-Lorena M, Kang A, St Leger RJ (2011) Development of transgenic fungi that kill human malaria parasites in mosquitoes. Science 331:1074-1077. http://www.sciencemag.org/content/331/6020/1074.full
