Preferential feeding success of laboratory reared Anopheles stephensi mosquitoes according to ABO blood group status

Recent epidemiological evidences revealed a higher rate of O blood group in the residents of malaria-endemic areas suggesting that groups A, B, and AB associated with a higher disease severity and fatality. Also recent data showed the low prevalence of AB group within the malaria-endemic residents in south of Iran and India. The aim of this study was to determine the ABO blood groups preference of Anopheles stephensi which is the main malaria vector in Iran, southwest Asia, and India. An. stephensi mosquitoes were fed either artificially on A/B/O/AB membrane blood feeders or directly on human volunteer hands and forearms of A/B/O/AB groups in a cage under lab conditions. Phenotype and genotype analyzes of 450-blood-fed mosquito specimens using agglutination and multiplex-allele-specific PCR revealed a significant blood preference of An. stephensi to AB group (40%) than other groups of A (24%), B (21%), and O (15%) in combination of both experiments. High preference of An. stephensi to AB group might increase malaria infection and fatality in this blood group and resulted in low frequency of AB group in the residents of malaria endemic areas. The data suggested that malaria vectors, like parasites may have selection pressure on human genotypes.