Mosquito vectors of ape malarias: Another piece of the puzzle

It is remarkable that the two Plasmodium species that infect millions of humans around the world today, Plasmodium falciparum and Plasmodium vivax , both originated in Africa from single common ancestors that infected wild-living apes. Plasmodium species of the subgenus Laverania , which include P. falciparum , exhibit strong host specificity, and no host transfers between humans, gorillas, and chimpanzees have been documented in nature. In contrast, host transfers take place frequently in nature for parasites of the subgenus Plasmodium that includes P. vivax and Plasmodium malariae (1⇓⇓–4). P. falciparum appears to have originated as a result of a single transfer of Plasmodium praefalciparum from gorillas to humans (1). The ability of gorilla parasites to invade the human erythrocytes appears to be a major barrier for interspecies transfer that P. praefalciparum had to overcome (5). However, although P. falciparum does not infect apes in nature, species transfers to bonobos and chimpanzees have been documented in sanctuaries where apes come in close contact with infected humans. Furthermore, experimental infections of chimpanzees with P. falciparum have been achieved multiple times under laboratory conditions (6). This evidence indicates that there is no strong biological barrier for P. falciparum to transfer back from humans to certain ape species. In PNAS, Makanga et al. (7) investigate the potential role of anopheline mosquito vectors as a barrier for interspecies transfer of Plasmodium parasites in an extensive longitudinal survey. Sylvatic anopheline species were collected in two forested wildlife reserves in Gabon (Central Africa) for a period of 15 mo., and 18 different anopheline mosquito species were identified based on morphology and molecular taxonomy. Mosquito whole body and salivary gland were screened for the presence of Plasmodium parasites by PCR amplification and sequencing of a … [↵][1]1To whom correspondence should be addressed. Email: cbarillas{at}niaid.nih.gov. [1]: #xref-corresp-1-1