Abstract
BackgroundMosquito-borne diseases have a devastating impact on human civilization. A few species of Anopheles mosquitoes are responsible for malaria transmission, and while there has been a reduction in malaria-related deaths worldwide, growing insecticide resistance is a cause for concern. Aedes mosquitoes are known vectors of viral infections, including dengue, yellow fever, chikungunya, and Zika. Aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases (aaRSs) are key players in protein synthesis and are potent anti-infective drug targets. The structure–function activity relationship of aaRSs in mosquitoes (in particular, Anopheles and Aedes spp.) remains unexplored.MethodsWe employed computational techniques to identify aaRSs from five different mosquito species (Anopheles culicifacies, Anopheles stephensi, Anopheles gambiae, Anopheles minimus, and Aedes aegypti). The VectorBase database (https://vectorbase.org/vectorbase/app) and web-based tools were utilized to predict the subcellular localizations (TargetP-2.0, UniProt, DeepLoc-1.0), physicochemical characteristics (ProtParam), and domain arrangements (PfAM, InterPro) of the aaRSs. Structural models for prolyl (PRS)-, and phenylalanyl (FRS)-tRNA synthetases—were generated using the I-TASSER and Phyre protein modeling servers.ResultsAmong the vector species, a total of 37 (An. gambiae), 37 (An. culicifacies), 37 (An. stephensi), 37 (An. minimus), and 35 (Ae. aegypti) different aaRSs were characterized within their respective mosquito genomes. Sequence identity amongst the aaRSs from the four Anopheles spp. was > 80% and in Ae. aegypti was > 50%.ConclusionsStructural analysis of two important aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases [prolyl (PRS) and phenylanalyl (FRS)] of Anopheles spp. suggests structural and sequence similarity with potential antimalarial inhibitor [halofuginone (HF) and bicyclic azetidine (BRD1369)] binding sites. This suggests the potential for repurposing of these inhibitors against the studied Anopheles spp. and Ae. aegypti.
Highlights
Mosquito-borne diseases have a devastating impact on human civilization
Chakraborti et al Parasites & Vectors (2021) 14:605 and bicyclic azetidine (BRD1369)] binding sites. This suggests the potential for repurposing of these inhibitors against the studied Anopheles spp. and Ae. aegypti
The three primary Anopheles vectors in India are (i) An. culicifacies, which is responsible for the majority of malaria cases in India; (ii) An. stephensi; and (iii) An. minimus [10, 11]
Summary
Mosquito-borne diseases have a devastating impact on human civilization. A few species of Anopheles mosquitoes are responsible for malaria transmission, and while there has been a reduction in malaria-related deaths worldwide, growing insecticide resistance is a cause for concern. This study lays the groundwork for the development of next-generation insecticides against the Anopheles spp. and Ae. aegypti aaRSs. Protein sequences of the aaRSs from the five mosquitoes (An. culicifacies, An. stephensi, An. minimus, An. gambiae, Ae. aegypti) were retrieved from the VectorBase database (https://vectorbase.org/vectorbase).
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