ArticlePLoS pathogens2020
Multiple blood feeding in mosquitoes shortens the Plasmodium falciparum incubation period and increases malaria transmission potential.
Article in PLoS pathogens, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 56 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
56 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 100 citations in OpenAlex.
- A Systematic Review of the Effects of Temperature onInternational journal of environmental research and public health · 2021Pooled it
- Anopheles Mosquitoes Exposed to Long-Acting Antimalarials via Drug-Supplemented Bloodmeal Absorb Drug but Do Not Suffer Fitness Costs.The Journal of infectious diseases · 2026Article
- The brain of the female Anopheles gambiae mosquito at spatial and single-cell resolution.Nature communications · 2026Article
- A multiplex assay to detect mosquito species, bloodmeal host source and Plasmodium in malaria vectors using Nanopore amplicon sequencing.Medical and veterinary entomology · 2026Article
- PfApiAT2 is a proline transporter essential for the transmission of Plasmodium falciparum by the mosquito vector.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Expelling of Plasmodium falciparum Sporozoites by Anopheles stephensi Mosquitoes During Repeated Feeding.The Journal of infectious diseases · 2026Article
- Demystifying Plasmodium development within the Anopheles mosquito.Current opinion in microbiology · 2026Review
- A simulation-based deep learning framework for spatially explicit malaria modeling of CRISPR suppression gene drive mosquitoes.iScience · 2026Article
- PfApiAT2 is a proline transporter essential for the transmission ofResearch square · 2026Article
- PfApiAT2 is a proline transporter essential for the transmission ofbioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Characterization of entomological drivers of malaria transmission in five villages, Keerom Regency, Papua, Indonesia.PloS one · 2026Article
- Mosquito Feeding Preference, Infectivity Rates, and Knockdown Resistance Within the Wild Population ofTropical medicine and infectious disease · 2025Article
- Biting time of day in malaria mosquitoes is modulated by nutritional status.Malaria journal · 2025Article
- Biting time of day in malaria mosquitoes is modulated by nutritional status.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Effects of recombination on multi-drug resistance evolution in Plasmodium falciparum malaria.PLoS computational biology · 2025Article
- When a mean can be meaningless: evaluating mosquito infections withParasitology · 2025Review
- The Frontier of Entomo-Virology: Applications and Tools for Virus and Vector Surveillance.Pathogens (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Article
- Anopheles mosquito exposure is associated with age, gender and bed net use in areas in Uganda experiencing varying malaria transmission intensity.The Journal of infection · 2025Article
- OocystMeter, a machine-learning algorithm to count and measurebioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
10 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Many mosquito species, including the major malaria vector Anopheles gambiae, naturally undergo multiple reproductive cycles of blood feeding, egg development and egg laying in their lifespan. Such complex mosquito behavior is regularly overlooked when mosquitoes are experimentally infected with malaria parasites, limiting our ability to accurately describe potential effects on transmission. Here, we examine how Plasmodium falciparum development and transmission potential is impacted when infected mosquitoes feed an additional time. We measured P. falciparum oocyst size and performed sporozoite time course analyses to determine the parasite's extrinsic incubation period (EIP), i.e. the time required by parasites to reach infectious sporozoite stages, in An. gambiae females blood fed either once or twice. An additional blood feed at 3 days post infection drastically accelerates oocyst growth rates, causing earlier sporozoite accumulation in the salivary glands, thereby shortening the EIP (reduction of 2.3 ± 0.4 days). Moreover, parasite growth is further accelerated in transgenic mosquitoes with reduced reproductive capacity, which mimic genetic modifications currently proposed in population suppression gene drives. We incorporate our shortened EIP values into a measure of transmission potential, the basic reproduction number R0, and find the average R0 is higher (range: 10.1%-12.1% increase) across sub-Saharan Africa than when using traditional EIP measurements. These data suggest that malaria elimination may be substantially more challenging and that younger mosquitoes or those with reduced reproductive ability may provide a larger contribution to infection than currently believed. Our findings have profound implications for current and future mosquito control interventions.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.