MAEBL Is Essential for Malarial Sporozoite Infection of the Mosquito Salivary Gland

Malarial sporozoites mature in the oocysts formed in the mosquito midgut wall and then selectively invade the salivary glands, where they wait to be transmitted to the vertebrate host via mosquito bite. Invasion into the salivary gland has been thought to be mediated by specific ligand–receptor interactions, but the molecules involved in these interactions remain unknown. MAEBL is a single transmembrane-like protein that is structurally related to merozoite adhesive proteins. We found MAEBL of the rodent malaria parasite, Plasmodium berghei, to be specifically produced by the sporozoites in the oocyst and localized in their micronemes, which are secretory organelles involved in malarial parasite invasion into the host cell. A targeted disruption experiment of the P. berghei MAEBL gene revealed that it was essential for sporozoite infection of the salivary gland and was involved in the attachment to the salivary gland surface. In contrast, the disruption of the MAEBL gene did not affect sporozoite motility in vitro nor infectivity to the vertebrate host. These results suggest that P. berghei MAEBL is a sporozoite attachment protein that participates in specific binding to and infection of the mosquito salivary gland.