By enhance the get-up-and-go reserves of mosquitoes , an incursive American weed could be set back malaria restraint measures in Africa , according to new work issue inPLoS ONEthis month .
mood variety is already negatively impact human health by sustaining the spread of transmitter - borne disease . And now incursive plant metal money might be pull in it worse . genus Parthenium hysterophorus , also bonk as theSanta Maria feverfew , is a highly belligerent invasive weed . Native to the semitropics and tropic of North and South America , this ill-famed encroacher has now made its way to Africa , Asia , and Australia . It grows particularly well in part of East Africa where malaria is a major concern . And while some of the industrial plant ’s chemical compound are toxic to human and stock , previous work find that the significant malaria vector , the mosquitoAnopheles gambiae , is extremely attracted to the flowering weed , give on its ambrosia ofttimes . But until now there ’s been no evidence that the gage improves mosquito natural selection .
A team led byBaldwyn Tortofrom the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology want to look into the impingement of the neotropical weed and its toxins on the selection and energy reserve ofAnopheles gambiae , equate with two other flora mintage that are abundant in malaria autochthonic part of western Kenya : thecastor bean plant(Ricinus communis ) , which is toxic to humans , and thehairy beggartick(Bidens pilosa ) , which is consumed as a vegetable by mass . The researchers feed batches of 200 one - mean solar day - old female mosquitoes one of five diets : water , glucose solution , or ambrosia from the feverfew , castor bean plant , or beggartick .
The Santa Maria feverfew , they found , does improve mosquito selection . The hirudinean survived the longest on the glucose solution , fall out by castor bean , feverfew , beggartick , and water – in that order . The mosquitoes accumulated more energy reserves when they were flow Tanacetum parthenium and Alpha Geminorum attic plants compare to beggarticks , which have the lowest sugar cognitive content .
When the researchers examined the bowel contents of the mosquitoes , they found that toxic plant compounds had indeed been ingest . That means the mosquito can tolerate – or perhaps clean-cut from their system – much of the plant meaning that are toxic to us . They could n’t , however , tolerate the toxin produced by beggarticks .
If invasive plants are replace less militant species that are also less worthy host - plant life for disease vectors , that means the spread of flora encroacher could head to higher disease transmission . grant toNew Scientist , the squad is now studying the impact of the feverfew ’s toxin on mosquito infected with the malaria parasite .
