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Antenna is the main chemosensory organ in mosquitoes. Characterization of the transcriptional changes after blood meal, especially those related to chemoreception, may help to explain mosquito blood sucking behavior and to identify novel targets for mosquito control. Anopheles sinensis is an Asiatic mosquito species which transmits malaria and lymphatic filariasis. However, studies on chemosensory biology in female An. sinensis are quite lacking. Here we report a transcriptome analysis of An. sinensis female antennae pre- and post- blood meal. We created six An. sinensis antenna RNA-seq libraries, three from females without blood meal and three from females five hours after a blood meal. Illumina sequencing was conducted to analyze the transcriptome differences between the two groups. In total, the sequenced fragments created 21,643 genes, 1,828 of them were novel. 12,861 of these genes were considered to be expressed (FPKM >1.0) in at least one of the two groups, with 12,159 genes expressed in both groups. 548 genes were differentially expressed in the blood-fed group, with 331 genes up-regulated and 217 genes down-regulated. GO enrichment analysis of the differentially expressed genes suggested that there were no statistically over represented GO terms among down-regulated genes in blood-fed mosquitoes, while the enriched GO terms of the up-regulated genes occurred mainly in metabolic process. For the chemosensory gene families, a subtle distinction in the expression levels can be observed according to our statistical analysis. However, the firstly comprehensive identification of these chemosensory gene families in An. sinensis antennae will help to characterize the precise function of these proteins in odor recognition in mosquitoes. This study provides a first global view in the changes of transcript accumulation elicited by blood meal in An. sinensis female antennae. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The barnacle is well known for its tenacious and permanent attachment to a wide variety of underwater substrates, which is accomplished by synthesizing, secreting and curing a mixture of adhesive proteins termed “barnacle cement”. In order to evaluate interfacial adhesion abilities of barnacle cement proteins, the cp19k homologous gene in Balanus albicostatus (Balcp19k) was cloned and expressed in Escherichia coli. Here, we report an intriguing discovery of a gel-like super adhesive aggregation produced by Trx-Balcp19k, a recombinant Balcp19k fusion protein. The Trx-Balcp19k consists of an 18 kDa fragment at the N-terminus, which is encoded by pET-32a(+) plasmid and mainly comprised of a thioredoxin (Trx) tag, and Balcp19k at the C-terminus. The sticky aggregation was designated as “Trx-Balcp19k gel”, and the bulk adhesion strength, biochemical composition, as well as formation conditions were all carefully investigated. The Trx-Balcp19k gel exhibited strong adhesion strength of 2.10 ± 0.67 MPa, which was approximately fifty folds higher than that of the disaggregated Trx-Balcp19k (40 ± 8 kPa) and rivaled those of commercial polyvinyl acetate (PVA) craft glue (Mont Marte, Australia) and UHU glue (UHU GmbH & Co. KG, Germany). Lipids were absent from the Trx-Balcp19k gel and only a trace amount of carbohydrates was detected. We postulate that the electrostatic interactions play a key role in the formation of Trx-Balcp19k gel, by mediating self-aggregation of Trx-Balcp19k based on its asymmetric distribution pattern of charged amino acids. Taken together, we believe that our discovery not only presents a promising biological adhesive with potential applications in both biomedical and technical fields, but also provides valuable paradigms for molecular design of bio-inspired peptide- or protein-based materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]