Transgenic Mosquitoes Expressing a Phospholipase A2 Gene Have a Fitness Advantage When Fed Plasmodium falciparum-Infected Blood
Figure 3
Transgenic mosquitoes have a fitness advantage when fed on P. falciparum-infected blood.
Population cages were started with equal numbers of wild type An. stephensi and PLA2-transgenic mosquitoes hemizygous for the transgene and maintained either on P. falciparum-infected or non-infected human blood. Results reported for the AP (-) transgenic line (A) and the AP (+) transgenic line (B). Transgene prevalence was monitored in cage populations maintained on P. falciparum-infected (red) or non-infected (blue) blood for twelve generations. For each experimental condition (infected or non-infected blood), the average transgene prevalence of three independent experiments at each generation is denoted with error bars accounting for the standard error of the mean (SEM) between experiments. Dashed lines represent the best-fit model results. The solid black line represents the expected outcome if there is no cost or benefit to being transgenic.
