FIG 1.

Additional feeding differentially impacts rodent and human malaria parasite survival. Experimental overview of additional feeding experiments in A. gambiae (A). Following an initial infection (day 0) with Plasmodium berghei or Plasmodium falciparum (dark red circle), blood fed mosquitoes were maintained on sugar or were challenged with an additional blood (pink circle) or protein (blue circle) meal at either 4 or 8 days postinfection. The effects of each experimental condition on oocyst numbers were then evaluated at 8 or 10 days postinfection, respectively. The influence of an additional feeding on P. berghei oocyst numbers was examined on day 8 for mosquitoes receiving an additional blood (B) or protein meal (C) 4 days postinfection. Similar experiments were also performed with P. falciparum, where oocyst numbers were evaluated on day 8 in mosquitoes that received an additional blood or protein meal 4 days postinfection (D). Potential temporal effects of the timing of feeding on oocyst survival were also examined, where mosquitoes infected with P. berghei or P. falciparum were maintained on sugar or received an additional uninfected blood meal 8 days postinfection (E and F). Oocyst numbers were evaluated at 10 days postinfection for P. berghei (E) and P. falciparum (F). For all experiments, each dot represents the number of parasites on an individual midgut, with the median value denoted by a horizontal red line. Mosquito infection data were pooled from three or more independent experiments (B to D) or from two independent experiments (E and F). Statistical analysis was performed using nonparametric tests for individual comparisons (Mann-Whitney U) or multiple comparisons (Kruskal-Wallis with a Dunn’s multiple-comparison test) using GraphPad Prism 7 software. Asterisks denote significance (**, P < 0.01; ****, P < 0.0001). n, number of mosquitoes examined per group; ns, not significant.