Fig. 4

Inhibition of AsP38 MAPK signaling reduced P. falciparum development in A. stephensi. Mosquitoes were provided with a P. falciparum-infected blood meal supplemented with (a, b) 0.1-10 μM SB203580 (SB) or (c, d) 10 μM BIRB796 (BIRB) or an equivalent volume of DMSO as a control. Midguts were dissected and oocysts were counted at 10 days following infection. The experiment was replicated three times with separate cohorts of mosquitoes and analysed by ANOVA to determine if the oocyst intensity in the controls differed amongst replicates. No difference was found, and the data were pooled across replicates and analysed by Kruskal-Wallis to test for overall significance and Dunn's post-test for pairwise comparisons of means. Significant p-values are shown for mean oocysts per infected midgut (zero values excluded). Prevalences of infection (mosquitoes with at least one P. falciparum oocyst) are shown as percentages of dissected mosquitoes. Fisher's exact test was used to test for significance. (e) P. falciparum cultures were incubated with 1 μM or 10 μM of SB203580 or BIRB796 or equivalent volume of DMSO as a control for 48 h. Graph represents average relative growth compared to untreated controls (dotted line) at 48 h, n = 3. Pairwise comparisons of treatments versus control were analysed by Student’s t-test. No significant differences among control and treatment groups were found