Abstract
A small cDNA library was constructed from antennae of 100 adult male Aedes aegypti yellow fever mosquitoes. Sequencing of 80 clones identified 49 unique gene products, including a member of the Odorant Binding Protein family (Aaeg-OBP10), a homologue of Takeout (Aaeg-TO), and transposable elements of the LINE, SINE and MITE classes. Aaeg-OBP10 encodes a 140 amino acid protein including a predicted 25 amino acid signal peptide. Aaeg-OBP10 expression was adult male enriched, increased with adult age, and greatest in antennae and wings but also present in maxillary palps, proboscis and leg. Aaeg-OBP10 is a likely orthologue of Agam-OBP10 of the malaria mosquito Anopheles gambiae and shares significant similarity with members of the OBP56 gene cluster of Drosophila melanogaster. These OBP genes may represent a unified class of OBPs with unique roles in chemodetection; the expression pattern of Aaeg-OBP10 suggests it may play a role in adult male chemosensory behavior. Aaeg-TO encodes a 248 amino acid protein including a predicted 22 amino acid signal peptide. Aaeg-TO is homologous with the circadian/feeding regulated D. melanogaster Takeout protein (Dmel-TO) and a subclass of Juvenile Hormone Binding Proteins (JHBP) characterized by Moling from Manduca sexta; both Dmel-TO and Moling are sensitive to feeding, suggesting Aaeg-TO might regulate the antennal response to food, host or pheromonal odors in a JH sensitive manner. Aaeg-TO was used to identify 25 D. melanogaster and 13 A. gambiae homologues by Blast analysis suggesting these may comprise a relatively large class of protein involved in the hormonal regulation of behavior.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 961-979 |
| Number of pages | 19 |
| Journal | Insect Biochemistry and Molecular Biology |
| Volume | 35 |
| Issue number | 9 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Sep 2005 |
| Externally published | Yes |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:This work comprised a part of Dr. Bohbot's Ph.D. Dissertation. We wish to thank Roger Sawyer (University of South Carolina) for giving us the opportunity to pursue this effort, Mark Brown (University of Georgia) for being ever willing to provide embryos, the Department of Defense for their financial support through the USC University Research Initiative for Combat Readiness (DoD award number N00014-97-1-0806) and the National Science Foundation for their financial support through grants to RGV (IBN-9731005 and IBN-9731005).
Keywords
- Antenna
- Gustation
- JHBP
- Moling
- OBP
- Olfaction
- Real-time PCR
