* Corresponding author: Soam Prakash* Department of Zoology, Faculty of Science, Dayalbagh Educational Institute, Dayalbagh, Agra, India-282 110 ISSN: 0976-3031 RESEARCH ARTICLE FUNGUS GENERATED NOVEL NANOPARTICLES: A NEW PROSPECTIVE FOR MOSQUITO CONTROL Namita Soni and Soam Prakash* Environmental and Advanced Parasitology and Vector Control Biotechnology Laboratories, Department of Zoology, Faculty of Science, Dayalbagh Educational Institute, Dayalbagh, Agra, India-282 110 ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT This work was to evaluate the efficacies of the nanoparticles (NPs) of silver (Ag) and Gold (Au) against the major tropical mosquitoes. In the present study, the Ag and Au NPs were synthesized by using the cell free extract of Fusarium oxysporum f.sp. pisi fungus. The bioreduction of AgNPs and AuNPs was monitored by ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy, and the AgNPs and AuNPs obtained were characterized by transmission electron microscopy and scanning electron microscopy. The synthesized AgNPs and AuNPs were spherical particles ranging in size from 20-40 nm (AgNPs) and 2-10 nm (AuNPs). Further, these synthesized NPs were also tasted as larvicides and pupicides against the larvae and pupae of Cx. quinquefasciatus, An. stephensi and Ae. aegypti. The efficacy test was performed at different concentrations for a period of different hours by the probit analysis. The maximum efficacy was observed in synthesized AgNPs against the larvae of Ae. aegypti (LC 50 8, 6, 4, LC 90 12.30, 12.58, 11.48, LC 99 15.48, 13.48, 12.88 ppm, respectively for first, second and fourth in stars) after 1 h and pupae (LC 50 , 2, LC 90 11 and LC 99 13 ppm) after 2 h. The maximum efficacy was observed in AuNPs against the larvae of Cx. quinquefasciatus (LC 50 12.58, LC 90 30.00 and LC 99 42.65 ppm) after 48 h. This suggest that the synthesized Ag and Au NPs could be an environmentally safer, greener and better approach for mosquito control than current approach. INTRODUCTION Diseases are spread like malaria, filariasis, dengue and chikungunya etc. by mosquitoes. Malaria is a life-threatening disease caused by parasites that are transmitted to people through the bites of infected mosquitoes. Anopheles species are the most important species as they are capable vector for malaria parasites. According to the latest estimates, there were about 219 million cases of malaria in 2010 (with an uncertainty range of 154 million to 289 million) and an estimated 660 000 deaths (with an uncertainty range of 490 000 to 836 000). Malaria mortality rates have fallen by more than 25% globally since 2000 and by 33% in the WHO African Region. Most deaths occur among children living in Africa where a child dies every minute from malaria. Country-level burden estimates available for 2010 show that an estimated 80% of malaria deaths occur in just 14 countries and about 80% of cases occur in 17 countries. Together, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Nigeria account for over 40% of the estimated total of malaria deaths globally (World Health Organization 2013a). Moreover, Culex mosquitoes are painful and persistent biters and are responsible for filariasis. Lymphatic filariasis is a neglected tropical disease. Nearly 1.4 billion people in 73 countries worldwide are threatened by lymphatic filariasis, commonly known as elephantiasis. Over 120 million people are currently infected, with about 40 million disfigured and incapacitated by the disease (World Health Organization 2013b). Aedes mosquitoes on the other hand are also painful and persistent biters. Aedes aegypti could also be responsible for spreading Dengue. The incidence of dengue has grown dramatically around the world in recent decades. Over 2.5 billion people – over 40% of the world's population – are now at risk from dengue. WHO currently estimates there may be 50–100 million dengue infections worldwide every year (World Health Organization 2012)? There is a need to control mosquito population so that people can be protected from mosquito borne diseases. Fungi and fungus– derived products are highly toxic to mosquitoes, yet have low toxicity to non-target organisms (Govindrajan et al., 2005). But there is a problem with fungi because fungal metabolites have the slow reaction on the target organisms. There is an urgent need to develop new insecticides for controlling mosquitoes which are more environmentally safe and also biodegradable and target specific against parasites. Fungi are currently been used for nanoparticles synthesis. Many of the fungi like Phytopthora infestans (Thirumurugan et al., 2009), Trichoderma reesei (Vahabi et al., 2011), Aspergillus (Bharathidasan and Panneerselvam, 2012; Moharrer et al., 2012; Alexandre et al., 2012; Kumar et al., 2012; Raliya and Tarafdar, 2012; Soni and Prakash, 2011; Saha et al., 2012; Gupta and Bector, 2013), Rhizopus (Das et al., 2012a, b), Schizophyllum (Chan and Don, 2012) and Epicoccum nigrum (Quian et al., 2013) have been used for synthesis of silver and gold nanoparticles. Polymethacrylate (PMA) stabilized silver nanoparticles synthesized by UV Available Online at http:/ / www.recentscientific.com International Journal of Recent Scientific Research International Journal of Recent Scientific Research Vol. 4, Issue, 10, pp.1481-1487, October, 2013 Article History: Received 16 th , September, 2013 Received in revised form 26 th , September, 2013 Accepted 12 th , October, 2013 Published online 28 th October, 2013 © Copy Right, IJRSR, 2013, Academic Journals. All rights reserved. Key words: Fusarium oxysporum f.sp. pisi, nanoparticles, mosquito control