Abstract
BackgroundThe mosquito species Aedes aegypti is the primary vector of many arboviral diseases, including dengue and yellow fevers, that are responsible for a large worldwide health burden. The biological rhythms of mosquitoes regulate many of the physiological processes and behaviors that influence the transmission of these diseases. For insight into the molecular basis of biological rhythms, diel and circadian gene expression profiling has been carried out for many species. To bring these resources to Aedes aegypti researchers, we used microarray technology to carry out a genome wide assessment of gene expression during the 24 hour light/dark (LD) cycle and during constant darkness (DD). The purpose of this report is to describe the methods, the validation of the results, and the organization of this database resource.DescriptionThe Aedes aegypti Circadian Database is a publicly accessible database that can be searched via a text-based query to visualize 44 hour temporal expression patterns of a given gene in Ae. aegypti heads under diel (observed under a 12 hour/12 hour LD cycle) and circadian (observed under DD) conditions. Profiles of gene expression under these conditions were assayed by Nimblegen 12-plex microarrays and rhythmicity was objectively assessed by the JTK_CYCLE algorithm. The output of the search is a graphical representation of the expression data along with computed period length, the time-of-day of gene expression peaks, and statistical determination for rhythmicity.ConclusionOur results show that at least 7.9% of the gene set present in the Aedes aegypti head are rhythmic under LD conditions and 6.7% can be considered circadian, oscillating under constant dark conditions. We present these results in the Aedes aegypti Circadian Database through Bioclock, a public website hosted by the University of Notre Dame at http://www.nd.edu/~bioclock/. This website allows searchable browsing of this quantitative gene expression information. The visualization allows for gene-by-gene comparison of transcript expression under both diel and circadian conditions, and the results are presented graphically in a plot profile of gene expression. The Ae. aegypti Circadian Database provides a community resource for observing diel and circadian fluctuations in gene expression across the Ae. aegypti genome.
Highlights
The mosquito species Aedes aegypti is the primary vector of many arboviral diseases, including dengue and yellow fevers, that are responsible for a large worldwide health burden
The circadian clock is an endogenous mechanism comprised of a series of transcriptional-translational feedback loops (TTFLs), that can be entrained by external stimuli, and that drives the rhythmic expression of genes [6,7]
The clock is reset/entrained by light, and the insect cryptochrome 1 (CRY1) functions as a photoreceptor in this process, while CRY2 contributes to the negative TTFL of the circadian clock [10,11,12]
Summary
The mosquito species Aedes aegypti is the primary vector of many arboviral diseases, including dengue and yellow fevers, that are responsible for a large worldwide health burden. For insight into the molecular basis of biological rhythms, diel and circadian gene expression profiling has been carried out for many species To bring these resources to Aedes aegypti researchers, we used microarray technology to carry out a genome wide assessment of gene expression during the 24 hour light/dark (LD) cycle and during constant darkness (DD). Many vector borne diseases including yellow fever, dengue fever, Japanese encephalitis and Chikungunya fever are transmitted by the mosquito species Aedes aegypti These infections cause morbidity and further economic burden in predominantly low-income countries, and result in a substantial death toll worldwide [1,2,3]. The circadian clock in the mosquito species Anopheles gambiae regulates the expression of many RNA transcripts as well as behaviors, including flight and feeding [8,20]. Characterizing the impact of the circadian clock on these and other physiological processes is crucial to understanding how these behaviors are regulated
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