Functional and genetic characterization of neuropeptide Y-like receptors in Aedes aegypti
Autor(es): Liesch, Jeff; Bellani, Lindsay L.; Vosshall, Leslie B.
Resumo: Female mosquitoes are responsible for spreading many deadly infectious diseases including malaria, dengue fever, and yellow fever. These mosquitoes require a blood meal to produce eggs and preferentially feed on humans, thereby spreading disease as they feed. Females of the dengue vector mosquito Aedes aegypti undergo a natural change in behavior after a blood meal in which they lose attraction to humans for over three days. We are interested in understanding this natural behavioral inhibition because it may provide an opportunity to control mosquito blood-feeding behavior. Previous work showed that a small protein called Head Peptide-I could mimic this behavioral inhibition when injected into non-blood-fed females, which normally show very high attraction to humans. In this work, we set out to find the Head Peptide-I receptor and ask if it causes this behavioral inhibition. By testing eight different candidate receptors, we found one called NPYLR1 that responds to Head-Peptide I but is much more sensitive to another peptide called sNPF-3. We made mutant mosquitoes that lack the npylr1 gene and found that the mutants showed normal sugar- and blood-feeding behavior. We conclude that there must be additional receptors and/or peptides that together cause this long-lasting inhibition of female mosquito attraction to humans.
Palavras-Chave: Human diseases; Infectious diseases; Receptors; Peptides; Pest control; Hosts; Aquatic insects; Disease transmission; Public health; Spreading; Head; Dengue; Yellow fever; Vectors; Malaria; Blood meals; Neuropeptides
Imprenta: Plos Neglected Tropical Diseases, v. 7, n. 10, 2013.
Descritores: Aedes aegypti - Proteins ; Aedes aegypti - Infectious diseases ; Aedes aegypti - Transmission ; Aedes aegypti - Dengue ; Aedes aegypti - Public health
Data de publicação: 2013
