Molecular archaeology: individual human DNA and infection profiles from 100 year old mosquitoes

Abstract

Natural history collections represent a vast biological and genetic resource, which has remained largely untapped. We revisit mosquito collections of varying ages; some made by early tropical medicine pioneers over 100 years ago. By applying species-specific primers, a panel of forensic short tandem repeat (STR) markers, and Plasmodium diagnostics, we were able to obtain the unique genetic profile and Plasmodium infection status of the individual from whom each mosquito obtained their final bloodmeal. We show evidence of long-dead mosquitoes feeding on multiple individuals in the same gonotrophic cycle, and how the human hosts are likely to have been infected with malaria at the time of blood-feeding. This approach may be used to track the host-fidelity of vectors over an evolutionary time scale.