During mosquito transmission, malaria ookinetes must cross a chitin-containing structure known as the peritrophic matrix (PM), which surrounds the infected blood meal in the mosquito midgut. In turn, ookinetes produce multiple chitinase activities presumably aimed at disrupting this physical barrier to allow ookinete invasion of the midgut epithelium. Plasmodium chitinase activities are demonstrated targets for human and avian malaria transmission blockade with the chitinase inhibitor allosamidin. Here, we identify and characterize the first chitinase gene of a rodent malaria parasite, Plasmodium berghei. We show that the gene, named PbCHT1, is a structural ortholog of PgCHT1 of the avian malaria parasite Plasmodium gallinaceum and a paralog of PfCHT1 of the human malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum. Targeted disruption of PbCHT1 reduced parasite infectivity in Anopheles stephensi mosquitoes by up to 90%. Reductions in infectivity were also observed in ookinete feeds-an artificial situation where midgut invasion occurs before PM formationsuggesting that PbCHT1 plays a role other than PM disruption. PbCHT1 null mutants had no residual ookinete-derived chitinase activity in vitro, suggesting that P. berghei ookinetes express only one chitinase gene. Moreover, PbCHT1 activity appeared insensitive to allosamidin inhibition, an observation that raises questions about the use of allosamidin and components like it as potential malaria transmission-blocking drugs. Taken together, these findings suggest a fundamental divergence among rodent, avian, and human malaria parasite chitinases, with implications for the evolution of Plasmodium-mosquito interactions.After ingestion of infectious Plasmodium gametocytes by the mosquito, motile ookinetes develop in the midgut lumen and traverse the chitin-containing peritrophic matrix (PM), the microvillus-associated network, and the midgut epithelium to form sporozoite-producing oocysts on the hemocoel side of the midgut (11,18). After the demonstration that ookinetes secrete multiple chitinase activities (6), two distinct Plasmodium chitinase genes were isolated. The first was isolated from the human malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum (PfCHT1) (14), while the second was found in the avian malaria parasite Plasmodium gallinaceum (PgCHT1) (15). The primary structures of these two chitinase genes are markedly different: PgCHT1 encodes putative amino-terminal proenzyme and carboxy-terminal chitin-binding domains, which are both absent in PfCHT1. P. gallinaceum secretes a second chitinase activity provisionally named PgCHT2, believed to be orthologous to that encoded by PfCHT1 based on its molecular mass and physiological properties (pH optimum and sensitivity to the chitinase inhibitor allosamidin), and it may have additional chitinase activities (15).The Streptomyces-produced molecule allosamidin is a 622-dalton pseudo-oligosaccharide that inhibits Plasmodium chitinase activities in vitro (10,14,15). Moreover, the presence of allosamidin in an infected blood meal inhibited ooc...
