ANTI-VeC awarded 10 pump-priming projects up to £100,000 at the end of 2018. One of these projects, led by Tony Nolan (Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine) with co-investigator Charles Wondji (CRID), looks to rear Anopheles funestus in the laboratory in the hope of understanding its biology better and to open up the possibility to create new interventions against this mosquito. In the fourth of our profiles of awarded projects, we caught up with Tony to find out how the project is progressing.

Briefly describe the project in 1-2 sentences:

"Ways to manipulate the genome of mosquitoes that transmit malaria are really important for two reasons: 1 – it allows us to better understand what genes make that mosquito so good at being a vector for the malaria parasite; 2 – this understanding can allow us to better plan interventions that allow us to control mosquito numbers and thereby reduce malaria. This project is looking to develop a genome transformation technology for Anopheles funestusmosquitoes."

What are the unknowns/gaps in knowledge that you are investigating?

"Anopheles funestus are the less famous sibling to Anopheles gambiae, a bit like John Belushi to James Belushi, or maybe Dionne Warwick and Whitney Houston would be more apt – cousins, both dominant but in different genres. Despite being less covered in the news and being less researched, Anopheles funestus is the dominant vector (i.e. the one responsible for the majority of malaria transmission) in many areas of sub-Saharan Africa. This is particularly the case in many areas that are closer to eliminating malaria and so this species is the last nut to crack. A better understanding of its biology, and opening the door to innovative control methods that can go the last mile, including genetic control, will be of huge help in controlling this vector."

An update on the project: When did it start and what have you explored so far?

"One of the barriers to genetic transformation of mosquitoes is the technical difficulty associated with microinjection of mosquito eggs, which are tiny and not always easy to collect in sufficient numbers at the right stage of development. Since the project started in May we have been cloning the DNA constructs to inject and have optimised some of the egg laying and microinjection procedures through trial and error. We do have a robust lab colony of funestus now, which is no small feat."

How are you and your partners working together to realise this project?

"With Charles Wondji (Co-PI on the project) we have made several live collections of funestus from different regions in Cameroon. These have been brought to the lab at CRID in Cameroon to establish colonies. We will then look at the diversity of these colonies and each of these, if robust, will be an excellent testing ground to show that genetic traits that we might introduce are reproducible across different genetic backgrounds."

Example of evidence/data that has surprised you from your experiments so far?

"How much more difficult it is in the lab to rear funestus colonies than gambiaecolonies!"

What are you hoping the completed project will tell us? 

"It will open the door to functional genetics studies in funestus, as it had done for gambiae. It will mean that funestus can benefit from the same tools and opportunities for gambiae."

First published: 5 May 2020

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