<i>Plasmodium falciparum</i> evades immunity of anopheline mosquitoes by interacting with a Pfs47 midgut receptor
Alvaro Molina-Cruz, Gaspar E. Cánepa, Thiago Luiz Alves e Silva, Adeline E. Williams, Simardeep Nagyal, Lampouguin Yenkoidiok-Douti, Bianca M. Nagata, Eric Calvo, John F. Andersen, Martin J. Boulanger, Carolina Barillas‐Mury
Abstract
Significance The surface protein Pfs47 makes Plasmodium falciparum parasites “undetectable” to the mosquito immune system. We proposed the “lock and key” model in which a parasite expressing a compatible Pfs47 haplotype “the key,” is able to evade the mosquito immune system, by interacting with a mosquito Pfs47 receptor “the lock,” which differs between vectors from different continents. Here, we uncovered the identity of the mosquito midgut “Pfs47 receptor” (P47Rec). P47Rec has two natterin domains and structural homology to a cytoskeleton-interacting protein. It binds Pfs47 with high affinity, and silencing P47Rec reduced P. falciparum infection. The molecular interactions of P47Rec from different mosquito species with Pfs47 haplotypes from Africa and South America give further support to the lock and key model.