Transgenic Mosquitoes Expressing a Phospholipase A2 Gene Have a Fitness Advantage When Fed Plasmodium falciparum-Infected Blood
Figure 1
Characterization of mPLA2-transgenic mosquito lines.
(A) Two individual An. stephensi transgenic lines were created using the previously described piggyBac[3 × P3-EGFP(AgPerPLA2m)] construct [22]. DNA from non-transgenic parental mosquitoes (wt) or from mosquitoes of each of the transgenic lines [AP(-) and AP(+)] was digested with HindIII, fractionated by gel electrophoresis and blotted, followed by hybridization with a piggyBac probe. Quantitative RT-PCR was used to measure PLA2 mRNA abundance relative to ribosomal protein S7 mRNA in two independent biological replicates of whole mosquitoes (B) and in specific tissues (C) obtained from colony cages of both transgenic lines. Significant differences (P<0.05) are denoted by an asterisk as measured using a one-way ANOVA or Student’s t-test. n.s.: not significant.
