Establishment of a colony of Anopheles darlingi from French Guiana for vector competence studies on malaria transmission

Abstract

Anopheles darlingi is a major vector of both Plasmodium falciparum and Plasmodium vivax in South and Central America including French Guiana. However, the vector competence and physiology of this mosquito species have been scarcely studied due to difficulties in rearing it in the laboratory. Here, we report the successful establishment of a robust colony, from a mosquito collection in French Guiana. We describe our mosquito colonization procedure with relevant information on environmental conditions, mating ability, larval development, and survival, recorded over the first six critical generations. Experimental infection showed that our An. darlingi colony has a moderate permissiveness to in vitro produced gametocytes of the P. falciparum NF54 strain originating from Africa. This colony, which has reached its 21st generation, will allow further characterization of An. darlingi life-history traits and of Plasmodium–mosquito interactions with South American malaria parasites.

Colonization ofAnopheles coustani, a neglected malaria vector in Madagascar

“…Towards this goal, it would be of great interest to test whether the tools developed for establishing An. darlingi colonies would be beneficial, notably the use of light flashes to stimulate free copulation and shift in night temperature [2, 30, 37]. As discussed previously, additional refinements in the larval feeding regimen and larval density would possibly contribute to decrease the mortality rate during both larval and nymph stages.…”

Effects of Carbohydrate Intake on Anopheles darlingi and Anopheles deaneorum Fitness under Lab-Reared Conditions

“…Currently, free-mating laboratory populations of An. darlingi have been established to enhance studies on malaria transmission in Neotropical anopheline mosquitoes [2,[8][9][10]. However, maintaining a highly productive colony is a labor-intensive effort that typically requires standardized rearing methods to obtain a sufficient number of homogeneous and susceptible mosquitoes for the experimental procedures [8,11].…”

“…This is important not only for wild mosquitoes but also for those reared in laboratory conditions, where maintaining high adult vitality and mating ability is essential for colony maintenance [11]. In research laboratories, adult anopheline mosquitoes are typically fed a 10% sugar solution in the contexts of rearing [9,10,[19][20][21][22] and maintaining experimental Plasmodium-infected mosquito species [9,23,24]. However, other carbohydrate sources and varying concentrations can also be found in the literature, such as 5% glucose solution, 10% dextrose solution, 5% sucrose solution, 8% honey-water solution, and 10% honey-water solution [8,[25][26][27].…”

“…Our hypothesis was that a carbohydrate meal based on a 15% honey solution would enhance the fecundity, survival, and susceptibility to P. vivax in mosquitoes, compared to a common 10% sugar solution, which is the standard carbohydrate source for mosquito colonies [9,10,[19][20][21][22]. Here, we present our findings on the effects of different carbohydrate sources on biological parameters related to colony maintenance, including blood digestion, fecundity, male and female survival, and the susceptibility of laboratory-reared females from both the An.…”

Assessment of antibiotic treatment on Anopheles darlingi survival and susceptibility to Plasmodium vivax

“…Recently, well-established laboratory colonies of An. darlingi have become available, thereby allowing targeted investigations of P. vivax-vector interaction (Moreno et al, 2014;Villarreal-Treviño et al, 2015;Araujo et al, 2019;Puchot et al, 2022), and providing a basis for P. vivax-An. darlingi modeling that can be used to develop new transmission-blocking strategies in endemic areas.…”