Improved efficacy of an arthropod toxin expressing fungus against insecticide-resistant malaria-vector mosquitoes.

ABSTRACT: The continued success of malaria control efforts requires the development, study and implementation of new technologies that circumvent insecticide resistance. We previously demonstrated that fungal pathogens can provide an effective delivery system for mosquitocidal or malariacidal biomolecules. Here we compared genes from arthropod predators encoding insect specific sodium, potassium and calcium channel blockers for their ability to improve the efficacy of Metarhizium against wild-caught, insecticide-resistant anophelines. Toxins expressed under control of a hemolymph-specific promoter increased fungal lethality to mosquitoes at spore dosages as low as one conidium per mosquito. One of the most potent, the EPA approved Hybrid (Ca⁺⁺/K⁺ channel blocker), was studied f

SUBMITTER: Bilgo E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5469824 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature