The occurrence of apparent ‘symbiotic’ association between Anopheles mosquitoes and bacterial species has not been much evaluated. A possible approach to restrict malaria parasite transmission is to manipulate the mosquito functional genome, one possible approach is to employ normal bacterial symbionts of the mosquito gut to block development cycle in the vector. Gut microbes have been described to be involved in supporting normal growth and development of Drosophila. There have been conflicting reports regarding the role of microbes in the fitness of the vector. Hedges et al. (2008) described that Drosophila melanogaster flies infected with a common bacterial endosymbiont, Wolbachia display reduced mortality

induced by a range of RNA viruses and bacterial presence provides a fitness advantage to flies. #mTOR inhibitor therapy randurls[1|1|,|CHEM1|]# The study highlighted the notion that the native microbes are symbionts that modulate immune responses [1]. On the MM-102 nmr other hand, Wolbachia pipientis wMelPop strain presence in dengue vector Aedes aegypti, reduced the life span of vector to half the normal adult life span. Nevertheless, it is becoming abundantly clear that endosymbiont microbes have a profound influence on the vector persistence

and competence in nature [2]. Mosquito midgut is an immune-competent organ. Plasmodium presence in gut is known to induce immune responses elsewhere in body, probably due to immune-signaling [3, 4]. The intensively investigated question is whether mosquito midgut resident endosymbiont contribute towards

elicitation of immune response of host to Plasmodium invasion? If they do indeed contribute towards facilitation of Plasmodium development in mosquito, the second important question is can these endosymbionts be used as paratransgenic to block their development? It is coceivable Thalidomide that a vector endosymbiont may be manipulated to produce antiparasitic molecules. This vector could then reintroduced into the insect gut, thus inhibiting parasite development [5–7]. A close relationship between gut microflora and mosquito development is exemplified during the metamorphosis of larva into adult mosquito. During metamorphic transition from larvae to adult the microflora associated with larvae is ‘cleaned’ and adult mosquitoes acquire new set of microbes. This process of microbial cleansing and acquisition is termed as gut-sterilization [8]. A few studies have been performed to identify bacterial species in field-collected Anopheles mosquitoes, using microbe culturing techniques. These studies highlighted breadth of bacterial flora associated with mosquitoes. Bacteria, Pseudomonas cepacia, Enterobacter agglomerans, and Flavobacterium spp. were found in high abundance in laboratory-reared A. stephensi, A. gambiae and A. albimanus mosquitoes [9]. Further, the gut microflora varied depending upon the ecological niche or geographical location of the mosquitoes. Straif et al.