Since 1988 malaria epidemics have occurred in multiple sites in western Kenya highlands. Climatic variability has been associated with some of the recent epidemics. We examined influences of climatic factors on the distribution and abundance of three malaria vector species, Anopheles gambiae, Anopheles arabiensis, and Anopheles funestus in western Kenya and in the Great Rift Valley. Mosquito sa...

OBJECTIVE Insecticide resistance molecular markers can provide sensitive indicators of resistance development in Anopheles vector populations. Assaying these makers is of paramount importance in the resistance monitoring programme. We investigated the presence and distribution of knock-down resistance (kdr) mutations in Anopheles gambiae s.l. in Tanzania. METHODS Indoor-resting Anopheles mosq...

INTRODUCTION The aim of this study was to evaluate the susceptibility to insecticides of An. gambiae mosquitoes sampled in Dielmo (Senegal), in 2010, 2 years after the implementation of Long Lasting Insecticide-treated Nets (LLINs) and to report the evolution of kdr mutation frequency from 2006 to 2010. METHODS WHO bioassay susceptibility tests to 6 insecticides were performed on adults F0, i...

BACKGROUND Allelic gene structure variations and alternative splicing are responsible for transcript structure variations. More than 75% of human genes have structural isoforms of transcripts, but to date few studies have been conducted to verify the alternative splicing systematically. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS The present study used expressed sequence tags (ESTs) and EST tagged SNP pat...

The Anopheles gambiae species complex includes at least seven morphologically indistinguishable species, one of which, Anopheles gambiae sensu stricto, is the primary mosquito vector responsible for the transmission of malaria across sub-Saharan Africa. Sympatric ecological diversification of An. gambiae s.s. is in progress within this complex, leading to the emergence of at least two incipient...

Abstract The insecticide resistance in Anopheles gambiae mosquitoes has remained the major threat for vector control programs but fitness effects conferred by these mechanisms are poorly understood. To fill this knowledge gap, present study aimed at testing hypothesis that antibiotic oxytetracycline could have an interaction with genotypes and consequently inhibit fecundity An. gambiae. Four st...

The African malaria mosquito, Anopheles gambiae, inhabits diverse environments including dry savannas, where surface waters required for larval development are absent for 4-8 months per year. Under such conditions, An. gambiae virtually disappears. Whether populations survive the long dry season by aestivation (a dormant state promoting extended longevity during the summer) or are reestablished...

It was in Freetown, Sierra Leone, that the malaria mosquito Anopheles coastalis, now known as Anopheles gambiae, was first discovered as the vector of malaria, in 1899. That discovery led to a pioneering vector research in Sierra Leone and neighbouring Liberia, where mosquito species were extensively characterized. Unfortunately, the decade long civil conflicts of the 1990s, in both countries, ...

Olfaction is critical to the host preference selection behavior of many disease-transmitting insects, including the mosquito Anopheles gambiae sensu stricto (hereafter A. gambiae), one of the major vectors for human malaria. In order to more fully understand the molecular biology of olfaction in this insect, we have previously identified several members member of a family of candidate odorant r...