Malaria is a fatal human parasitic disease transmitted by a mosquito vector. Although the evolution of within-host malaria virulence has been the focus of many theoretical and empirical studies, the vector’s contribution to this process is not well understood. Here, we explore how within-vector resource exploitation would impact the evolution of within-host Plasmodium virulence. By combining within-vector dynamics and malaria epidemiology, we develop a mathematical model, which predicts that non-competitive parasitic resource exploitation within-vector restricts within-host parasite virulence. To validate our model, we experimentally manipulate mosquito lipid trafficking and gauge within-vector parasite development and within-host infectivity and virulence. We find that mosquito-derived lipids determine within-host parasite virulence by shaping development (quantity) and metabolic activity (quality) of transmissible sporozoites. Our findings uncover the potential impact of within-vector environment and vector control strategies on the evolution of malaria virulence.
CITATION STYLE
Costa, G., Gildenhard, M., Eldering, M., Lindquist, R. L., Hauser, A. E., Sauerwein, R., … Levashina, E. A. (2018). Non-competitive resource exploitation within mosquito shapes within-host malaria infectivity and virulence. Nature Communications, 9(1). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-05893-z
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