据10月2日的《科学》杂志报道说，研究人员通过研究蚊子的genomics/" target="_blank">基因组而发现了某一单个基因的表达在某种程度上决定了一个蚊子是否能够传播导致疟疾的寄生虫。 这一发现为人们所看到的不同种群的蚊子具有不同的作为传播媒介的能力提供了一个遗传学的基础：在这些蚊子的种群中，有些能够自身杀灭虐原虫，而另外一些蚊子的种群则注定会传播疟原虫。

Stephanie Blandin及其同僚结合RNA干扰研究及在整个基因组范围内的测绘显示，在感染虐原虫的蚊子中，某一单个基因会表达一种叫做TEP1的蛋白质。其表达能力在不同的蚊虫中不尽相同，而这种差别决定了虐原虫是否会被蚊子本身的免疫反应所杀灭，或是会被传播给一个新的宿主。 文章的作者观察到在蚊虫中具有不同水平的TEP1 基因表达，并纪录了不同的表达水平将会如何影响啮齿动物疟原虫的Plasmodium berghei。 他们的结果表明，TEP1的表达（以及能够影响TEP1蛋白质的其他基因的作用）决定了在蚊子中的这些啮齿类动物疟原虫的命运。 这些发现可能为人们提供了在未来控制疟疾传播的新工具。

原始出处：

Science 2 October 2009:DOI: 10.1126/science.1175241

Dissecting the Genetic Basis of Resistance to Malaria Parasites in Anopheles gambiae

Stephanie A. Blandin,1,2,* Rui Wang-Sattler,1,3,* Marina Lamacchia,2 Julien Gagneur,1 Gareth Lycett,1, Ye Ning,1, Elena A. Levashina,2 Lars M. Steinmetz1,

The ability of Anopheles gambiae mosquitoes to transmit Plasmodium parasites is highly variable between individuals. However, the genetic basis of this variability has remained unknown. We combined genome-wide mapping and reciprocal allele-specific RNA interference (rasRNAi) to identify the genomic locus that confers resistance to malaria parasites and demonstrated that polymorphisms in a single gene encoding the antiparasitic thioester-containing protein 1 (TEP1) explain a substantial part of the variability in parasite killing. The link between TEP1 alleles and resistance to malaria may offer new tools for controlling malaria transmission. The successful application of rasRNAi in Anopheles suggests that it could also be applied to other organisms where RNAi is feasible to dissect complex phenotypes to the level of individual quantitative trait alleles.

1 European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), Meyerhofstrasse 1, 69117 Heidelberg, Germany.
2 CNRS UPR9022, INSERM U963, 15 rue Descartes, 67084 Strasbourg, France.
3 Institute of Epidemiology, Helmholtz Zentrum München, Ingolst?dter Landstrasse 1, 85764 Munich/Neuherberg, Germany.