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Updated: Aug 14, 2025
Small-Cage Laboratory Trials of Genetically-Engineered Anopheline Mosquitoes
Published on: May 1, 2021
An alternating transmission model between mice and mosquitoes for genetic study of dengue virus
Xiaojuan Zhu1, Yuting Jiang2, Hengduan Zhang2
1Department of Vector Biology and Control, State Key Laboratory of Pathogen and Biosecurity, Beijing Key Laboratory of Vector Borne and Natural Focus Infectious Diseases, Institute of Microbiology and Epidemiology, Beijing Key Laboratory, Beijing 100071, China; NHC Key laboratory of Enteric Pathogenic Microbiology, Jiangsu Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Nanjing 210009, China.
Abstract:
Rapidly increased incidence and prevalence of dengue virus serotype 2 (DENV-2) in recent decades highlight the need for better understanding of the selective pressures that drive genetic and phenotypic changes in this virus. We simulated the transfer of DENV-2 between human hosts and mosquito vectors by horizontally transmitting the virus between suckling mice and Aedes aegypti (Linnaeus, Diptera: Culicidae). A total of 3 cycles of alternating transmission were performed and 3 passages of virus population were harvested from the infected sucking mice. The viral titer in mice brain and infectivity to mosquitoes of theses viral populations were tested. The genome of the viruses was also sequenced. Results showed that viral titer were similar and infection rate in the mosquitoes were not significantly different among those 3 passages. This in vivo model could be utilized to explore virus evolution and genetic variance in alternating transmission.
