MISO1 and infection: Tolerance is a defense strategy whereby an organism reduces the fitness costs associated with an infection without impacting pathogen burden [31–33], and as such our results identify MISO as critical to An. coluzzii tolerance to P. falciparum. MISO is strongly induced in the female atrium by sexual transfer of 20E, which among mosquitoes has specifically evolved in the Cellia subgenus, with African species transferring higher titers of this steroid hormone [29].