According to the World Health Organization’s World Malaria Report 2025, malaria cases in the Americas increased by 15.7% between 2015 and 2024.
Malaria is a blood-borne disease transmitted by mosquitoes carrying the Plasmodium parasite. Despite mosquito control efforts, malaria remains prevalent in parts of South America, Asia, and Africa. In a March paper in Science, Jacob Tennison and colleagues examined the population genomics of Anopheles (Nyssorhynchus) darlingi, the primary malaria vector in South America. The researchers found that Anopheles darlingi is evolving resistance to insecticides.
Tennessen and his colleagues sequenced the genomes of 1,094 mosquitoes from six countries (Brazil, Colombia, French Guiana, Guyana, Peru, and Venezuela). They found recurring genetic variations in neighboring populations, particularly within a 150-kb window encompassing six genes encoding cytochrome P450. Mutations in the P450 genes are associated with resistance to pyrethroid insecticides, as observed in Anopheles funestus and Anopheles gambiae in sub-Saharan Africa.
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The authors further identified this highly selective mutation as a polymorphism in the CYP6AA1 gene, where one allele encodes threonine at position 283, and the other encodes lysine. To test whether this polymorphism confers insecticide resistance in mosquitoes, the researchers captured 16 wild Anopheles darlingi and treated them with deltamethrin. The results showed that mosquitoes carrying the threonine-lysine polymorphism survived significantly longer than those homozygous for threonine or homozygous for lysine. Thus, the Anopheles darlingi population is currently undergoing selection for mutations that enhance its resistance to deltamethrin.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO) “World Malaria Report 2025,” malaria cases in the Americas increased by 15.7% between 2015 and 2024, with Venezuela, Brazil, and Colombia accounting for 75% of these cases. Epidemiologists at GlobalData predict that by 2026, Brazil will have more than 160,000 confirmed cases of malaria and more than 1.6 million new cases.
The key to malaria eradication lies in vector control. Mosquitoes of the genus Anopheles africanus have developed resistance to pyrethroid insecticides, and this resistance appears to be evolving independently in mosquitoes of the genus Anopheles dulcis. As evolutionary pressure continues to drive mosquito resistance, mosquito population control will become increasingly challenging, and malaria eradication will become increasingly difficult. Therefore, priority must be given to other vector and disease control mechanisms.
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Post time: May-27-2026
