Link to HAL – hal-02872237
Link to DOI – 10.1101/2020.01.27.922070
2020
Maternal effects have been reported in many organisms whereby exposure to environmental stress, either toxics or pathogens will impact on progeny response to these stresses. Here we show that Anopheles gambiae susceptibility to Plasmodium falciparum is dependent upon maternal effects driven by females not previously exposed to the parasite. The maternal effect involved both mother age and reproductive state. Offspring of old females or from a 4 th gonotrophic cycle are more susceptible than offspring from young females. These maternal effects also contribute to overall better fitness of the offspring. As mosquito population age structure contributes heavily shaping malaria transmission, consequences of this novel finding should be taken into account in further strategies for controlling malaria transmission.