Metagenomics, paratransgenesis and the Anopheles microbiome: a portrait of the geographical distribution of the anopheline microbiota based on a meta-analysis of reported taxa

Anophelines harbour a diverse microbial consortium that may represent an extended gene pool for the host. The proposed effects of the insect microbiota span physiological, metabolic and immune processes. Here we synthesise how current metagenomic tools combined with classical culture-dependent techniques provide new insights in the elucidation of the role of the Anopheles-associated microbiota. Many proposed malaria control strategies have been based upon the immunomodulating effects that the bacterial components of the microbiota appear to exert and their ability to express anti-Plasmodium peptides. The number of identified bacterial taxa has increased in the current “omics” era and the available data are mostly scattered or in “tables” that are difficult to exploit. Published microbiota reports for multiple anopheline species were compiled in an Excel® spreadsheet. We then filtered the microbiota data using a continent-oriented criterion and generated a visual correlation showing the exclusive and shared bacterial genera among four continents. The data suggested the existence of a core group of bacteria associated in a stable manner with their anopheline hosts. However, the lack of data from Neotropical vectors may reduce the possibility of defining the core microbiota and understanding the mosquito-bacteria interactive consortium.

Macroeconomic trouble and policy challenges in the wake of the financial bust

Contrasting with the 1929 great crisis, authorities intervened forcefully in 2008 to stop the disintegration of the financial system. Governments and central banks then sought to revise the prudential regulation in depth. It would be optimistic, however, to believe that prudential measures, alone, could deliver full economic recovery, at least in the countries that had been involved in the financial turmoil. Indeed, the collapse of the "state of confidence" and the negative effects of private debts on consumption and investment decisions have fed depressive forces and policy challenges which could hold for a while, even once the financial sector is made safe. On the one hand, the economic slowdown and the direct and indirect assistance provided by the governments to the private sectors are having a heavy impact on public finances, meanwhile, on the other hand, the massive amounts of money which artificially inflated the prices of housing and financial products could produce inflationary pressures in the post-crisis period, unless a new assets bubble is allowed for. Authorities could therefore be facing high unemployment in a damaged context of public deficits and inflationary pressures. The paper aims at discussing these new challenges. The inadequacy of inflation targets and fiscal orthodoxy in a depressed economy is emphasized, and the outlines of a Post Keynesian alternative policy are examined.