Abstract
Anopheline mosquito species are obligatory vectors for human malaria, an infectious disease that affects hundreds of millions of people living in tropical and subtropical countries. The lack of a suitable gene transfer technology for these mosquitoes has hampered the molecular genetic analysis of their physiology, including the molecular interactions between the vector and the malaria parasite. Here we show that a transposon, based on the Minos element1 and bearing exogenous DNA, can integrate efficiently and stably into the germ line of the human malaria vector Anopheles stephensi , through a transposase-mediated process.
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Acknowledgements
We thank A. Richman at EMBL for the initial efforts for anopheline transformation and D. Prager and the MacArthur Vector Biology Network for the collegial interactions that greatly stimulated the project. The research was supported by a Network grant of the training and Mobility Program of the European Community, by Implyx Ltd, by WHO-TDR, by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the SFB 544 of the Deutsche Forchungsgemeinschaft and an individual fellowship of the Biotechnology Program of the EU (T.G.L.)
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Catteruccia, F., Nolan, T., Loukeris, T. et al. Stable germline transformation of the malaria mosquito Anopheles stephensi . Nature 405, 959–962 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1038/35016096
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/35016096
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