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A Blood Meal Enhances Innexin mRNA Expression in the Midgut, Malpighian Tubules, and Ovaries of the Yellow Fever Mosquito Aedes aegypti

Mosquitoes are vectors of pathogens that cause diseases of medical and veterinary importance. Female mosquitoes transmit these pathogens while taking a blood meal, which most species require to produce eggs. The period after a blood meal is a time of extreme physiological change that requires rapid...

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Autores principales: Calkins, Travis L., Piermarini, Peter M.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2017
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5746805/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29113099
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/insects8040122
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author Calkins, Travis L.
Piermarini, Peter M.
author_facet Calkins, Travis L.
Piermarini, Peter M.
author_sort Calkins, Travis L.
collection PubMed
description Mosquitoes are vectors of pathogens that cause diseases of medical and veterinary importance. Female mosquitoes transmit these pathogens while taking a blood meal, which most species require to produce eggs. The period after a blood meal is a time of extreme physiological change that requires rapid coordination of specific tissues. Gap junctions (GJ) are intercellular channels that aid in the coordination of cells within tissues via the direct transfer of certain small molecules and ions between cells. Evolutionarily distinct groups of proteins form the gap junctions of vertebrate and invertebrate animals (connexins and innexins, respectively). Aedes aegypti mosquitoes possess six genes encoding innexins: inx1, inx2, inx3, inx4, inx7, and inx8. The goal of this study was to identify potential roles of innexins in the physiology of mosquitoes after a blood meal by using qPCR to quantify their mRNA expression in adult females at 3 h and 24 h post-blood meal (PBM) relative to non-blood-fed controls. We found that at 24 h PBM, expression levels of inx2, inx3, and inx4 mRNAs increased; inx2 was the most highly upregulated innexin in key tissues associated with blood-meal digestion and egg production (i.e., the midgut and ovaries, respectively). However, knocking down inx2 mRNA levels by over 75% via RNA interference had no significant effect on fecundity. Altogether, our results suggest that a blood meal influences the molecular expression of innexins in mosquitoes, but their specific physiological roles remain to be elucidated.
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spelling pubmed-57468052018-01-03 A Blood Meal Enhances Innexin mRNA Expression in the Midgut, Malpighian Tubules, and Ovaries of the Yellow Fever Mosquito Aedes aegypti Calkins, Travis L. Piermarini, Peter M. Insects Communication Mosquitoes are vectors of pathogens that cause diseases of medical and veterinary importance. Female mosquitoes transmit these pathogens while taking a blood meal, which most species require to produce eggs. The period after a blood meal is a time of extreme physiological change that requires rapid coordination of specific tissues. Gap junctions (GJ) are intercellular channels that aid in the coordination of cells within tissues via the direct transfer of certain small molecules and ions between cells. Evolutionarily distinct groups of proteins form the gap junctions of vertebrate and invertebrate animals (connexins and innexins, respectively). Aedes aegypti mosquitoes possess six genes encoding innexins: inx1, inx2, inx3, inx4, inx7, and inx8. The goal of this study was to identify potential roles of innexins in the physiology of mosquitoes after a blood meal by using qPCR to quantify their mRNA expression in adult females at 3 h and 24 h post-blood meal (PBM) relative to non-blood-fed controls. We found that at 24 h PBM, expression levels of inx2, inx3, and inx4 mRNAs increased; inx2 was the most highly upregulated innexin in key tissues associated with blood-meal digestion and egg production (i.e., the midgut and ovaries, respectively). However, knocking down inx2 mRNA levels by over 75% via RNA interference had no significant effect on fecundity. Altogether, our results suggest that a blood meal influences the molecular expression of innexins in mosquitoes, but their specific physiological roles remain to be elucidated. MDPI 2017-11-06 /pmc/articles/PMC5746805/ /pubmed/29113099 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/insects8040122 Text en © 2017 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Communication
Calkins, Travis L.
Piermarini, Peter M.
A Blood Meal Enhances Innexin mRNA Expression in the Midgut, Malpighian Tubules, and Ovaries of the Yellow Fever Mosquito Aedes aegypti
title A Blood Meal Enhances Innexin mRNA Expression in the Midgut, Malpighian Tubules, and Ovaries of the Yellow Fever Mosquito Aedes aegypti
title_full A Blood Meal Enhances Innexin mRNA Expression in the Midgut, Malpighian Tubules, and Ovaries of the Yellow Fever Mosquito Aedes aegypti
title_fullStr A Blood Meal Enhances Innexin mRNA Expression in the Midgut, Malpighian Tubules, and Ovaries of the Yellow Fever Mosquito Aedes aegypti
title_full_unstemmed A Blood Meal Enhances Innexin mRNA Expression in the Midgut, Malpighian Tubules, and Ovaries of the Yellow Fever Mosquito Aedes aegypti
title_short A Blood Meal Enhances Innexin mRNA Expression in the Midgut, Malpighian Tubules, and Ovaries of the Yellow Fever Mosquito Aedes aegypti
title_sort blood meal enhances innexin mrna expression in the midgut, malpighian tubules, and ovaries of the yellow fever mosquito aedes aegypti
topic Communication
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5746805/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29113099
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/insects8040122
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