User:Louise Nilsson (SLU)/sandbox

=Thorselliaceae=

Thorselliaceae is a family of bacteria belonging to the class Gammaproteobacteria. The family consists of three described species. The bacteria are Gram-negative and rod shaped, approximately 1 μm wide and 2 μm long. They are facultative anaerobes and motile. Thorselliaceae bacteria have been found around the world associated with vector mosquitoes, mainly with vectors of malaria.

The first described species was Thorsellia anophelis. It was isolated from the midgut of the malaria mosquito Anopheles arabiensis from Kenya. This new bacterium was given its name after the Swedish researcher Walborg Thorsell who worked with mosquitoes and insecticides against mosquitoes for many years. Thorsellia bacteria have now been found in mosquito species that are the major vectors of malaria in Africa, Asia and South America. The bacteria have also been found in the waters where the malaria mosquitoes breed. Some properties of Thorsellia suggest that they are adapted to the mosquito guts, they can accept an alkaline pH, which is found in mosquito larvae and they grow faster in blood culture. Thorsellia anophelis has besides in Anopheles also been found in the mosquito species Culex tarsalis, which is a vector of among other things, West Nile virus and encephalitis.

Currently, little is known about Thorselliaceae in nature apart from that it has been shown in a couple of studies that Thorsellia anophelis dominate the malaria mosquito gut flora and their breeding waters.

Application
A possible application of Thorselliaceae is in paratransgenesis to prevent the transmission of malaria. This would involve genetically transforming the bacteria with genes that produce effector molecules against malaria parasites inside the malaria mosquito gut. Thorselliaceae can be grown in the laboratory under normal conditions and are related to the bacterium Escherichia coli which suggests that the molecular techniques needed could be similar to those available for E. coli.