Genes resistant to malaria have been discovered in mosquitoes.

The Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (LSTM) has identified a genetic marker in malaria-carrying mosquitoes that could explain the reason why some insects are resistant to insecticides.

It is thought that some mosquitoes can, over time, become resistant to the most common insecticides used by humans in bednets and through indoor spraying.

Two resistant genes were identified in two of the major African mosquitoes, the Anopheles funestus and the Anopheles gambiae. Dr Hilary Ranson, lead author of the LSTM study, commented on the findings: “We expected to find that different species and populations would have different groups of genes responsible but they are very similar. This is encouraging news because it means that work to overcome resistance in one species is likely to be effective against the other.

“Routine use of these molecular markers for resistance will provide early warning of future control problems due to insecticide resistance and should greatly enhance our ability to mitigate the potentially devastating effects of resistance on malaria control.”

This research is an important step forward in the prevention of malaria. According to the Health Protection Agency, the disease is most prominent in Africa, where approximately 90% of the one million deaths from malaria worldwide occur every year. In the UK, around 2,000 cases occur each year in travellers returning to the UK from malaria-endemic countries.

The study is published in the February edition of the Genome Research journal.