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Updated: Jul 7, 2026

Sand Fly (Phlebotomus papatasi) Embryo Microinjection for CRISPR/Cas9 Mutagenesis
Published on: November 17, 2020
Leishmania manipulates sandfly feeding to enhance its transmission
1Department of Entomology, Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London SW7 5BD, UK. p.ready@nhm.ac.uk <p.ready@nhm.ac.uk>
Abstract:
Malaria parasites manipulate mosquitoes to ensure transmission between mammalian hosts; painstaking experiments have now demonstrated that another medically important protozoan, Leishmania, enhances its transmission through the adaptive manipulation of one of its sandfly vectors, Lutzomyia longipalpis. Experimental Leishmania infections specifically increased sandfly biting persistence and feeding on multiple hosts, but only if the parasites produced infective forms and a gel plug of filamentous proteophosphoglycan in the anterior midgut of the sandfly. This fundamental research is relevant to vaccine development.
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