Abstract
BackgroundBlood feeding, or hematophagy, is a behavior exhibited by female mosquitoes required both for reproduction and for transmission of pathogens. We determined the expression patterns of 3,068 ESTs, representing ~2,000 unique gene transcripts using cDNA microarrays in adult female Anopheles gambiae at selected times during the first two days following blood ingestion, at 5 and 30 min during a 40 minute blood meal and at 0, 1, 3, 5, 12, 16, 24 and 48 hours after completion of the blood meal and compared their expression to transcript levels in mosquitoes with access only to a sugar solution.ResultsIn blood-fed mosquitoes, 413 unique transcripts, approximately 25% of the total, were expressed at least two-fold above or below their levels in the sugar-fed mosquitoes, at one or more time points. These differentially expressed gene products were clustered using k-means clustering into Early Genes, Middle Genes, and Late Genes, containing 144, 130, and 139 unique transcripts, respectively. Several genes from each group were analyzed by quantitative real-time PCR in order to validate the microarray results.ConclusionThe expression patterns and annotation of the genes in these three groups (Early, Middle, and Late genes) are discussed in the context of female mosquitoes' physiological responses to blood feeding, including blood digestion, peritrophic matrix formation, egg development, and immunity.
Highlights
Blood feeding, or hematophagy, is a behavior exhibited by female mosquitoes required both for reproduction and for transmission of pathogens
For most mosquitoes living in optimal field or laboratory conditions, this cycle requires about forty-eight hours and involves a complex series of biological events, including peritrophic matrix formation, blood digestion, oocyte development, vitellogenesis, and excretion
Array composition Microarray analysis was conducted on 3057 cDNA clones generated from three different adult female An. gambiae mosquito abdomen-derived cDNA libraries to elucidate major patterns of gene expression through 48 hours post ingestion of a blood meal
Summary
Hematophagy, is a behavior exhibited by female mosquitoes required both for reproduction and for transmission of pathogens. The female generally feeds to repletion on a single blood meal and proceeds to use this nutrition as the basis for the development of a batch of eggs. For most mosquitoes living in optimal field or laboratory conditions, this cycle requires about forty-eight hours and involves a complex series of biological events, including peritrophic matrix formation, blood digestion, oocyte development, vitellogenesis, and excretion. Digestion of the proteinaceous blood meal is required for oocyte development and vitellogenesis, and these are coordinated processes. JH confers competence to fat body cells and ovarian follicles for uptake of ecdysteroidogenic hormone (OEH). Fat body cells take up ecdysone, convert it to 20-E and use it to activate transcription of vitellogenin genes [7], the genes encoding the major egg-yolk proteins, as well as a large number of other genes, many of whose products will be incorporated into eggs [see [8,9] for reviews]
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