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BackgroundEthiopia is one of the African countries where Plasmodium falciparum and P. vivax co-exist. Monitoring and evaluation of current malaria transmission status is an important component of malaria control as it is a measure of the success of ongoing interventions and guides the planning of future control and elimination efforts.Main textWe evaluated changes in malaria control policy in Ethiopia, and reviewed dynamics of country-wide confirmed and clinical malaria cases by Plasmodium species and reported deaths for all ages and less than five years from 2001 to 2016. Districts level annual parasite incidence was analysed to characterize the malaria transmission stratification as implemented by the Ministry of Health. We found that Ethiopia has experienced major changes from 2003 to 2005 and subsequent adjustment in malaria diagnosis, treatment and vector control policy. Malaria interventions have been intensified represented by the increased insecticide treated net (ITN) and indoor residual spraying (IRS) coverage, improved health services and improved malaria diagnosis. However, countrywide ITN and IRS coverages were low, with 64% ITN coverage in 2016 and IRS coverage of 92.5% in 2016 and only implemented in epidemic-prone areas of > 2500 m elevation. Clinical malaria incidence rate dropped from an average of 43.1 cases per 1000 population annually between 2001 and 2010 to 29.0 cases per 1000 population annually between 2011 and 2016. Malaria deaths decreased from 2.1 deaths per 100 000 people annually between 2001 and 2010 to 1.1 deaths per 100 000 people annually between 2011 to 2016. There was shrinkage in the malaria transmission map and high transmission is limited mainly to the western international border area. Proportion of P. falciparum malaria remained nearly unchanged from 2000 to 2016 indicating further efforts are needed to suppress transmission.ConclusionsMalaria morbidity and mortality have been significantly reduced in Ethiopia since 2001, however, malaria case incidence is still high, and there were major gaps between ITN ownership and compliance in malarious areas. Additional efforts are needed to target the high transmission area of western Ethiopia to sustain the achievements made to date.

Auxin is one of the major endogenous hormones that regulate the spike morphology in crops. In order to explore the auxin pathway genes involving spike type in wheat, the line SY95-71 with spindle spike and line CH7034 with compacted spike were selected to detect the endogenous auxin content in their young spikes. The results showed that the tryptophan content in SY95-71's young spikes was significantly higher than that in CH7034. RNA-seq results showed that four specific auxin-related GO items were enriched in SY95-71 young spikes within the high confidence interval (P<0.01), and the relative expression levels of Tryptophan Decarboxylase genes (responsible for transforming tryptophan into tryptamine) and Auxin Response Factor genes (ARFs) in SY95-71 were significantly higher than those in CH7034. Further analysis of two highly expressed ARF genes (TraesCS7A02G475600 and TraesCS7A02G475700) in SY95-71 revealed that they were a pair of tandem repeat genes located on the long arm of chromosome 7A and named TaARF23-A1 and TaARF23-A2 based on the IDs of ARF family member in wheat, respectively. The qRT-PCR results confirmed that the relative expression levels of TaARF23-A1 and TaARF23-A2 in SY95-71 young spikes were significantly higher than those in CH7034. The sequencing results showed that the exon of TaARF23-A had two SNPs and one InDel site between SY95-71 and CH7034. A molecular marker was developed based on the InDel site and then used to associated with the spike phenotypes of the recombinant inbred lines population derived by the cross of SY95-71 and CH7034 in six field environments. The results showed that TaARF23-A was significant correlation with spikelet number (P<0.0001), and its CH7034 allele increased by 1.67 spikelets compared with the SY95-71 allele. The results of this study provide the reference for the understanding of the development mechanism of spikelet and molecular marker for the improvement of ideal spike type in wheat. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Background Dengue, a mosquito-borne febrile viral disease, is found in tropical and sub-tropical regions around the world. Since the first occurrence of dengue was confirmed in Guangdong, China in 1978, dengue outbreaks have been reported sequentially in different provinces in South China transmitted by.peridomestic Ae. albopictus mosquitoes, diplaying Ae. aegypti, a fully domestic vector that transmits dengue worldwide. Rapid and uncontrolled urbanization is a characteristic change in developing countries, which impacts greatly on vector habitat, human lifestyle and transmission dynamics on dengue epidemics. In September 2010, an outbreak of dengue was detected in Dongguan, a city in Guangdong province characterized by its fast urbanization. An investigation was initiated to identify the cause, to describe the epidemical characteristics of the outbreak, and to implement control measures to stop the outbreak. This is the first report of dengue outbreak in Dongguan, even though dengue cases were documented before in this city. Methods Epidemiological data were obtained from local Center of Disease Control and prevention (CDC). Laboratory tests such as real-time Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR), the virus cDNA sequencing, and Enzyme-Linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) were employed to identify the virus infection and molecular phylogenetic analysis was performed with MEGA5. The febrile cases were reported every day by the fever surveillance system. Vector control measures including insecticidal fogging and elimination of habitats of Ae. albopictus were used to control the dengue outbreak. Results The epidemiological studies results showed that this dengue outbreak was initiated by an imported case from Southeast Asia. The outbreak was characterized by 31 cases reported with an attack rate of 50.63 out of a population of 100,000. Ae. albopictus was the only vector species responsible for the outbreak. The virus cDNA sequencing analysis showed that the virus responsible for the outbreak was Dengue Virus serotype-1 (DENV-1). Conclusions Several characterized points of urbanization contributed to this outbreak of dengue in Dongguan: the residents are highly concentrated; the residents' life habits helped to form the habitats of Ae. albopictus and contributed to the high Breteau Index; the self-constructed houses lacks of mosquito prevention facilities. This report has reaffirmed the importance of a surveillance system for infectious diseases control and aroused the awareness of an imported case causing the epidemic of an infectious disease in urbanized region.

Aedes (Stegomyia) albopictus, also known as the Asian tiger mosquito, is a mosquito which originated in Asia. In recent years, it has become increasingly rampant throughout the world. This mosquito can transmit several arboviruses, including dengue, Zika and chikungunya viruses, and is considered a public health threat. Despite the urgent need of genome engineering to analyze specific gene functions, progress in genetical manipulation of Ae. albopictus has been slow due to a lack of efficient methods and genetic markers. In the present study, we established targeted disruptions in two genes, kynurenine hydroxylase (kh) and dopachrome conversion enzyme (yellow), to analyze the feasibility of generating visible phenotypes with genome editing by the clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR) / CRISPR‐associated protein 9 (Cas9) system in Ae. albopictus. Following Cas9 single guide RNA ribonucleoprotein injection into the posterior end of pre‐blastoderm embryos, 30%–50% of fertile survivors produced alleles that failed to complement existing kh and yellow mutations. Complete eye and body pigmentation defects were readily observed in G1 pupae and adults, indicating successful generation of highly heritable mutations. We conclude that the CRISPR/Cas9‐mediated gene editing system can be used in Ae. albopictus and that it can be adopted as an efficient tool for genome‐scale analysis and biological study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]