The effect of the mosquito microbiota on malaria transmission

The permissiveness of malaria vectors to parasite infection varies extensively between individuals, some mosquitoes clearing the infection while others are highly infected, and therefore is a crucial parameter of disease transmission. Although genetic factors partly explain resistance to parasites, mosquito gut commensal bacteria also participate in anti-parasitic defences. We are investigating how the composition of the mosquito microbiota contributes to the observed variations in individual capacity for malaria transmission. Here, I will present work performed during my postdoc, showing that antibiotics present in the ingested blood influence the mosquito microbiota and vectorial capacity. Our data reveal that antibiotics present at therapeutic concentrations in the blood influence the mosquito permissiveness to Plasmodium falciparum. This will lead me to introduce research projects of my starting laboratory in French Guiana (Amazon basin), centred on the development of better models to study the mosquito microbiota and on the functional characterization of the Anopheles darlingi microbiota on P. vivax and P. falciparum transmission.