Pathogen prospecting of museums: Reconstructing malaria epidemiology Journal Articles

abstract

• Malaria is a disease of global significance. Ongoing changes to the earth’s climate, antimalarial resistance, insecticide resistance, and socioeconomic decline test the resilience of malaria prevention programs. Museum insect specimens present an untapped resource for studying vector-borne pathogens, spurring the question: Do historical mosquito collections contain Plasmodium DNA, and, if so, can museum specimens be used to reconstruct the historical epidemiology of malaria? In this Perspective, we explore molecular techniques practical to pathogen prospecting, which, more broadly, we define as the science of screening entomological museum specimens for human, animal, or plant pathogens. Historical DNA and pathogen prospecting provide a means of describing the coevolution of human, vector, and parasite, informing the development of insecticides, diagnostics, therapeutics, and vaccines.

authors

• Nelder, Mark P
• Schats, Rachel
• Poinar, Hendrik N
• Cooke, Amanda
• Brickley, Megan B

status

• published 

publication date

• April 9, 2024

has subject area

• Animals (MeSH)
• Anopheles (MeSH)
• DNA (MeSH)
• Humans (MeSH)
• Insecticide Resistance (MeSH)
• Insecticides (MeSH)
• Malaria (MeSH)
• Mosquito Control (MeSH)
• Mosquito Vectors (MeSH)
• Museums (MeSH)

published in

• Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America  Journal

keywords

• Animals
• Anopheles
• DNA
• Humans
• Insecticide Resistance
• Insecticides
• Malaria
• Mosquito Control
• Mosquito Vectors
• Museums
• evolution
• genomics
• museomics
• paleopathology
• vector-borne disease

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

• 10.1073/pnas.2310859121

start page

• e2310859121

volume

• 121

issue

• 15