I am a PhD student investigating parasite evolution in response to vector control programmes.
Many insect vector populations are evolving mechanisms to evade current vector control programmes, reducing the efficacy of these methods. Because of this, the evolutionary response of vectors is being closely monitored, but the potential response of parasites has been largely overlooked. I am interested in how changes to the within-vector environment caused by vector control affects parasite development, and whether parasites can adapt in order to maximise their survival and transmission.
Understanding the evolutionary potential of parasites will help to inform monitoring strategies for current control programmes, and provide insight into future strategies that can withstand unfavourable parasite evolution.
PUBLICATIONS
Oke, C. E., O'Donnell, A. J., Schneider, P., & Reece, S. E. (2024). Plasticity in malaria parasite development: mosquito resources influence vector-to-host transmission potential. Frontiers in Malaria, 2, 1481816. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmala.2024.1481816
Parasites rely on their hosts for all their nutrition however mosquitoes in the field exhibit diversity in the amount of food they require. In this paper we ask how variation in the amount of sugar and blood provided to malaria-infected mosquitoes affects the potential for parasites to transmit from vector to host. We find that parasites in well resourced mosquitoes are bigger, faster and are more numerous. Our results also suggest that resource availability affects the ability of parasites to migrate from the midgut to salivary glands for transmission.
Oke, C. E., Reece, S. E., & Schneider, P. (2023). Testing a non-destructive assay to track Plasmodium sporozoites in mosquitoes over time. Parasites & Vectors, 16(1), 1-12. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13071-023-06015-5
We tested a non-destructive method to detect sporozoites from individual infected mosquitoes on sugar-feeding substrates. Detection rate was surprisingly low, and investigations of the biological causes underlying this is needed to maximise the utility of using non-destructive assays to quantify sporozoite dynamics
Oke C. E., Ingham, V. A., Walling C. A., Reece, S. E. (2022) Vector control: agents of selection on malaria parasites? Trends in Parasitology 2022. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pt.2022.07.006.
This review highlights how vector control tools such as insecticides have altered mosquito vectors and consequently parasite ecology, and discusses how parasites might be able to respond. Understanding parasite responses is important because they could undermine gains made towards malaria elimination and may have knock-on consequences for parasite-host interactions.
Miot EF, Calvez E, Aubry F, Dabo S, Grandadam M., Marcombe S, Oke, C, Logan JG, Brey PT & Lambrechts L. (2020). Risk of arbovirus emergence via bridge vectors: case study of the sylvatic mosquito Aedes malayensis in the Nakai district, Laos. Sci. Rep. 10: 7750. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-64696-9
Martinez J, Showering A, Oke C, Jones RT, Logan JG. (2021). Differential attraction in mosquito–human interactions and implications for disease control. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B 376: 20190811. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2019.0811
EDUCATION/JOBS
2020 – present, PhD in Evolutionary Biology, University of Edinburgh
2017 – 2020, Scientific Officer, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
- Investigating the role of genetics in differential human attractiveness to malaria mosquitoes
2013 – 2017, MBiolSci Biology (integrated Masters), University of Sheffield
FUNDING
Studentship funded by Royal Society, Wellcome Trust and School of Biological Sciences