Back to Search
Start Over
The Aquaporin Gene Family of the Yellow Fever Mosquito, Aedes aegypti
- Source :
- Drake, Lisa L.; Boudko, Dmitri Y.; Marinotti, Osvaldo; Carpenter, Victoria K.; Dawe, Angus L.; & Hansen, Immo A.(2010). The Aquaporin Gene Family of the Yellow Fever Mosquito, Aedes aegypti. PLoS ONE, 5(12). UC Irvine: Retrieved from: http://www.escholarship.org/uc/item/52k798c3, PLoS ONE, Vol 5, Iss 12, p e15578 (2010), PLoS ONE
- Publication Year :
- 2010
- Publisher :
- eScholarship, University of California, 2010.
-
Abstract
- Background: The mosquito, Aedes aegypti, is the principal vector of the Dengue and yellow fever viruses. During feeding, an adult female can take up more than its own body weight in vertebrate blood. After a blood meal females excrete large amounts of urine through their excretion system, the Malpighian tubules (MT). Diuresis starts within seconds after the mosquito starts feeding. Aquaporins (AQPs) are a family of membrane transporters that regulate the flow of water, glycerol and other small molecules across cellular membranes in both prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells. Our aim was to identify aquaporins that function as water channels, mediating transcellular water transport in MTs of adult female Ae. aegypti. Methodology/Principal Findings: Using a bioinformatics approach we screened genome databases and identified six putative AQPs in the genome of Ae. aegypti. Phylogenetic analysis showed that five of the six Ae. aegypti AQPs have high similarity to classical water-transporting AQPs of vertebrates. Using microarray, reverse transcription and real time PCR analysis we found that all six AQPs are expressed in distinct patterns in mosquito tissues/body parts. AaAQP1, 4, and 5 are strongly expressed in the adult female MT. RNAi-mediated knockdown of the MT-expressed mosquito AQPs resulted in significantly reduced diuresis. Conclusions/Significance: Our results support the notion that AQP1, 4, and 5 function as water transporters in the MTs of adult female Ae. aegypti mosquitoes. Our results demonstrate the importance of these AQPs for mosquito diuresis after blood ingestion and highlight their potential as targets for the development of novel vector control strategies.
- Subjects :
- Glycerol
Malpighian tubule system
Anatomy and Physiology
tribolium-castaneum
genome sequence
Digestive Physiology
lcsh:Medicine
Mosquitoes
Dengue fever
Aedes
Medicine and Health Sciences
insects
lcsh:Science
Phylogeny
Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis
drosophila-melanogaster
Multidisciplinary
biology
Life Sciences
Infectious Diseases
Drosophila melanogaster
Medicine
Female
RNA Interference
Research Article
brain
Aquaporin
malpighian tubules
Aedes aegypti
glycerol
Malpighian Tubules
Aquaporins
Microbiology
Vector Biology
beetlebase
Evolution, Molecular
Yellow Fever
medicine
Animals
Biology
Gene
Water transport
lcsh:R
fungi
Computational Biology
Water
Vectors and Hosts
Biological Transport
water channel
biology.organism_classification
medicine.disease
Blood meal
Molecular biology
phylogenetic trees
lcsh:Q
Digestive System
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Drake, Lisa L.; Boudko, Dmitri Y.; Marinotti, Osvaldo; Carpenter, Victoria K.; Dawe, Angus L.; & Hansen, Immo A.(2010). The Aquaporin Gene Family of the Yellow Fever Mosquito, Aedes aegypti. PLoS ONE, 5(12). UC Irvine: Retrieved from: http://www.escholarship.org/uc/item/52k798c3, PLoS ONE, Vol 5, Iss 12, p e15578 (2010), PLoS ONE
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....6ec00a052723935cb6fd530bab7375c8