title: Mosquito Vectors and the Globalization of Plasmodium falciparum Malaria.
abstract: Plasmodium falciparum malaria remains a devastating public health problem. Recent discoveries have shed light on the origin and evolution of Plasmodium parasites and their interactions with their vertebrate and mosquito hosts. P. falciparum malaria originated in Africa from a single horizontal transfer between an infected gorilla and a human, and became global as the result of human migration. Today, P. falciparum malaria is transmitted worldwide by more than 70 different anopheline mosquito species. Recent studies indicate that the mosquito immune system can be a barrier to malaria transmission and that the P. falciparum Pfs47 gene allows the parasite to evade mosquito immune detection. Here, we review the origin and globalization of P. falciparum and integrate this history with analysis of the biology, evolution, and dispersal of the main mosquito vectors. This new perspective broadens our understanding of P. falciparum population structure and the dispersal of important parasite genetic traits.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Malaria and Vector Research, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Rockville, Maryland 20852; email: cbarillas@niaid.nih.gov.
authors.forename: Alvaro
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Molina-Cruz
authors.affiliation: Richard Guilder Graduate School and Sackler Institute for Comparative Genomics, American Museum of Natural History, New York, NY 10024.
authors.forename: Martine M
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Zilversmit
authors.affiliation: Genome Sequencing and Analysis Program, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02142.
authors.forename: Daniel E
authors.initials: DE
authors.lastname: Neafsey
authors.affiliation: Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138.
authors.forename: Daniel L
authors.initials: DL
authors.lastname: Hartl
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Malaria and Vector Research, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Rockville, Maryland 20852; email: cbarillas@niaid.nih.gov.
authors.forename: Carolina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Barillas-Mury
mesh_terms: D000220:Adaptation, Biological / Q000235:genetics; D000818:Animals; D000852:Anopheles / Q000469:parasitology; D014644:Genetic Variation; D006801:Humans; D057131:Immune Evasion; D016778:Malaria, Falciparum / Q000635:transmission*; D000072138:Mosquito Vectors / Q000276:immunology / Q000472:pathogenicity; D010963:Plasmodium falciparum / Q000235:genetics / Q000472:pathogenicity*
keywords: Anopheles mosquito; Plasmodium falciparum; antiplasmodial immunity; immune evasion; malaria globalization