{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,30]],"date-time":"2026-09-30T05:54:47Z","timestamp":1790747687445,"version":"4.1.0"},"reference-count":42,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,30]],"date-time":"2026-09-30T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1790726400000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Cell. Infect. Microbiol."],"abstract":"\n Background<\/jats:title>\n \n Malaria remains a major health burden, with an estimated 282 million cases and approximately 610,000 deaths recorded in 2024. The increasing prevalence of insecticide-resistant\n Anopheles<\/jats:italic>\n vectors and drug-resistant\n Plasmodium<\/jats:italic>\n strains has substantially eroded the efficacy of conventional control strategies, underscoring the critical need for innovative approaches. Accumulating evidence suggest that the mosquito midgut microbiome exerts a significant influence on\n Plasmodium sporogonic<\/jats:italic>\n development; however, no scoping investigation has fully mapped the metagenomic evidence base in this field.\n <\/jats:p>\n <\/jats:sec>\n \n Methods<\/jats:title>\n \n Adhering to the Arksey and O\u2019Malley framework and PRISMA-ScR guidelines, a systematic search was conducted across PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science for publications from January 2000 to April 2026. Studies that used microbiological, molecular, or metagenomic techniques to study the gut microbiota of mosquito species related to\n Plasmodium<\/jats:italic>\n were included. Descriptive mapping was used to synthesize the data in a thematic manner.\n <\/jats:p>\n <\/jats:sec>\n \n Results<\/jats:title>\n \n Thirteen primary studies met the inclusion criteria, comprising both observational field surveys and experimental infection studies. Four themes emerged: (1) gut microbiota diversity and composition are associated with\n Plasmodium<\/jats:italic>\n infection status, though the direction varies by mosquito species, geography, and season; (2) several taxa, including\n Burkholderia<\/jats:italic>\n ,\n Asaia<\/jats:italic>\n ,\n Sphingomonas<\/jats:italic>\n ,\n Pseudomonas<\/jats:italic>\n , and\n Serratia<\/jats:italic>\n , are consistently associated with reduced infection or are experimentally inhibitory; (3) the\n Enterobacteriaceae<\/jats:italic>\n and\n Serratia<\/jats:italic>\n spp. show context-dependent, bidirectional relationships with\n Plasmodium<\/jats:italic>\n that are best explained by strain-level variation; and (4) a smaller set of taxa, including\n Elizabethkingia<\/jats:italic>\n ,\n Chryseobacterium<\/jats:italic>\n ,\n Methylobacterium<\/jats:italic>\n , and\n Pantoea<\/jats:italic>\n , is positively associated with infection, on observational evidence only. The evidence relied predominantly on 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing, with a minority of studies adding whole-genome sequencing, transcriptomics, or metabolomics; none used shotgun metagenomics.\n <\/jats:p>\n <\/jats:sec>\n \n Conclusions<\/jats:title>\n \n The mosquito gut microbiome exerts a net inhibitory effect on\n Plasmodium<\/jats:italic>\n development, with translational potential for microbiome-based vector control, including paratransgenesis. However, the microbiota is not uniformly antagonistic to the parasite, and taxa positively associated with infection remain observational. The field is limited by a near-exclusive reliance on 16S rRNA profiling, few functional and longitudinal studies, and geographically narrow evidence. Multi-omics approaches, longitudinal designs, and broader geographic coverage will be essential to translate these associations into sustainable malaria control.\n <\/jats:p>\n <\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.3389\/fcimb.2026.1906816","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,30]],"date-time":"2026-09-30T04:56:28Z","timestamp":1790744188000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["The mosquito gut microbiome and Plasmodium development: a scoping review of molecular approaches and implications for malaria vector control"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"16","author":[{"given":"Wisdom Deborah","family":"Cleanclay","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Biochemistry, Covenant University, Ota","place":["Ogun State, Nigeria"]},{"name":"Covenant University Public Health and Wellbeing Research Cluster (CUPHWERC), Covenant University, Ota","place":["Ogun State, Nigeria"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Fabrice Banadzem","family":"Kernyuy","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Biochemistry, Covenant University, Ota","place":["Ogun State, Nigeria"]},{"name":"Covenant Applied Informatics and Communication Africa Centre of Excellence (CApIC-ACE), Covenant University, Ota","place":["Ogun State, Nigeria"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Irrinus Fonyuy","family":"Kintung","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Biochemistry, Covenant University, Ota","place":["Ogun State, Nigeria"]},{"name":"Covenant Applied Informatics and Communication Africa Centre of Excellence (CApIC-ACE), Covenant University, Ota","place":["Ogun State, Nigeria"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Nina Ghislaine","family":"Yensii","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Biochemistry, Covenant University, Ota","place":["Ogun State, Nigeria"]},{"name":"Covenant Applied Informatics and Communication Africa Centre of Excellence (CApIC-ACE), Covenant University, Ota","place":["Ogun State, Nigeria"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Agnes Mbiaya Mbeng","family":"Obi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Covenant Applied Informatics and Communication Africa Centre of Excellence (CApIC-ACE), Covenant University, Ota","place":["Ogun State, Nigeria"]},{"name":"Department of Microbiology, Covenant University, Ota","place":["Ogun State, Nigeria"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Ornella Ana\u00efse Mbang","family":"Nguema","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Biomedical Research Centre on Infectious Pathogens and Associated Pathologies (CREIPA), Department of Parasitology-Mycology and Tropical Medicine (DPMTM), University of Health Sciences","place":["Owendo, Gabon"]},{"name":"Medical Entomology Unit, DPMTM, USS","place":["Owendo, Gabon"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1965","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,30]]},"reference":[{"key":"B1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1595","DOI":"10.1007\/s00580-018-2780-8","article-title":"Evaluation of antimalarial and biochemical profiles of Abaleria\u00ae in Plasmodium berghei-infected mice","volume":"27","author":"Adebayo","year":"2018","journal-title":"Comp. 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