Figure 2.

PbMTRAP^KO Are Blocked in Mosquito Transmission

(A) P. berghei oocysts in the midgut of mosquitoes fed onto mice infected with wild-type or PbMTRAP^KO. Oocysts are visualized by mercurochrome staining of mosquito midguts 7 days after mosquito feeding. Scale bar, 100 μm. Quantification is shown on the left. N = 100 mosquitoes for each group.

(B) Quantification of P. berghei male gametocytes (MG, blue) and female gametocytes (FG, pink) circulating in mouse blood infected with either wild-type (WT) or PbMTRAP^KO parasites.

(C) Quantification of in vitro ookinete formation from gametocytes circulating in mouse blood infected with either wild-type (WT) or PbMTRAP^KO parasites.

(D) Quantification of green, red, and yellow (green + red) P. berghei oocyst numbers by fluorescence microscopy of mosquito midguts 7 days after mosquito feeding onto mice infected with a control mixture of green and red wild-type parasites (GFP⁺WT and RFP⁺WT, respectively), or with a mixture of PbMTRAP^KO (red, mCh⁺PbMTRAP^KO) and wild-type green (GFP⁺WT) parasites. N = 100 mosquitoes for each group. The gametocytemia of green and red parasites were comparable in infected mice of the different groups used for mosquito feeding (data not shown).

For all panels, data are shown as mean ± SD and are representative of three independent experiments.