MICETRAL: Invasive mice and rodent malaria in Africa: dissecting a natural parasite host shift involving two well-studied laboratory models

Abstract

Emerging diseases are often the product of a host shift, that is the sudden colonization of a new host species by a few parasites that are subsequently able to establish a new and viable population. A host shift incorporates several steps: (1) a contact between a donor and a recipient host species; (2) the transmission of the parasite between host species; (3) the adaptation of the parasite to overcome the biological barriers of the new host and finally (4) the evolution of the parasite and the host in response to the selective pressures they impose on each other. In our project, we will dissect these steps in the system involving, in Gabon, the house mouse and some rodent malaria agents. In this country, the house mouse is invasive and has captured these new pathogens.