Trade-offs, conflicts of interest and manipulation in Plasmodium-mosquito interactions

A long-held view among parasitologists is that infection by malaria parasit es does not harm the mosquito vector. One of the reasons for this belief is that the two partners of the association share interests in the most impor tant life-history traits of the mosquito. Both partners benefit from increa sed survival and an increased rate of bloodfeeding - the mosquito to increa se its reproductive success and the parasite to ensure its transmission. Pr oblems with this line of reasoning appear when one considers possible trade -offs among the mosquito's life-history parameters, which constrain the att empts by the mosquito and the parasite to maximize their success. Could the se constraints differ between the two partners and thus lead to conflicts o f interest and what would be the evolutionary and epidemiological consequen ces of conflicting interests? These questions will be investigated below.