FIG 3.

Iron supplementation quenched the inhibitory activity of FBS0701. To determine if the FBS0701-induced inhibition of gametocyte infectivity was due to iron chelation, FBS0701 was preincubated with different concentrations of FeCl₃ before adding it to the gametocyte culture. Gametocytes were incubated with FBS0701-FeCl₃ for 24 h and then fed to A. gambiae mosquitoes. In addition, the gametocyte cultures were incubated either with 25 μM FBS0701 alone or increasing concentrations of FeCl₃ alone. The numbers of oocysts were determined in mosquito midguts at 7 days postinfection. (A) Representative experiment. Horizontal bars represent median oocyst numbers. FBS, FBS0701; N, number of mosquitoes; prev, prevalence. (B) Percent inhibition of oocyst formation. The bars represent the pooled percent inhibition of oocyst formation from the independent experiments shown in Table S3 in the supplemental material. (C) Percent reduction in prevalence. The bars represent the pooled percent reduction in prevalence (percent infected mosquitoes) compared to that of the blank control from the independent experiments shown in Table S3. The error bars represent the standard error of the mean.