Adaptive periodicity in the infectivity of malaria gametocytes to mosquitoes.

ABSTRACT: Daily rhythms in behaviour, physiology and molecular processes are expected to enable organisms to appropriately schedule activities according to consequences of the daily rotation of the Earth. For parasites, this includes capitalizing on periodicity in transmission opportunities and for hosts/vectors, this may select for rhythms in immune defence. We examine rhythms in the density and infectivity of transmission forms (gametocytes) of rodent malaria parasites in the host's blood, parasite development inside mosquito vectors and potential for onwards transmission. Furthermore, we simultaneously test whether mosquitoes exhibit rhythms in susceptibility. We reveal that at night, gametocytes are twice as infective, despite being less numerous in the blood. Enhanced infectiousness at night in

SUBMITTER: Schneider P 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6191691 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature