Browsing by Subject "Mosquito vectors"

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3
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    Advances in oral RNAi for disease vector mosquito research and control
    (Elsevier, 2020) Wiltshire, Rachel M.; Duman-Scheel, Molly; Medical and Molecular Genetics, School of Medicine
    Mosquito vectors in the genera Anopheles, Aedes, and Culex transmit a variety of medically important pathogens. Current vector control tools are reaching the limits of their effectiveness, necessitating the introduction of innovative vector control technologies. RNAi, which facilitates functional characterization of mosquito genes in the laboratory, could one day be applied as a new method of vector control. Recent advances in the oral administration of microbial-based systems for delivery of species-specific interfering RNA pesticides to mosquitoes may facilitate translation of this technology to the field. Oral RNAi-based pesticides represent a new class of biorational pesticides that could combat increased global incidence of insecticide resistance and which could one day become critical components of integrated human disease vector mosquito control programs.
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    Oral RNAi for Gene Silencing in Mosquitoes: From the Bench to the Field
    (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press, 2022-07-12) Mysore, Keshava; Hapairai, Limb; Realey, Jacob S.; Sun, Longhua; Roethele, Joseph B.; Duman-Scheel, Molly; Medical and Molecular Genetics, School of Medicine
    RNA interference (RNAi) has played a key role in the field of insect functional genomics, a discipline that has enhanced the study of developmental, evolutionary, physiological, and molecular biological phenomena in a wide variety of insects, including disease vector mosquitoes. Here we introduce a recently optimized RNAi procedure in which adult mosquitoes are fed with a colored sugar bait containing small interfering RNA (siRNA). This procedure effectively and economically leads to gene silencing, is technically straightforward, and has been successfully used to characterize a number of genes in adult mosquitoes. We also discuss how, in addition to laboratory applications, this oral RNAi procedure might one day be used in the field for controlling insect pests.
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    Widespread release of translational repression across Plasmodium’s host-to-vector transmission event
    (Public Library of Science, 2025-01-08) Rios, Kelly T.; McGee, James P.; Sebastian, Aswathy; Gedara, Sanjaya Aththawala; Moritz, Robert L.; Feric, Marina; Absalon, Sabrina; Swearingen, Kristian E.; Lindner, Scott E.; Pharmacology and Toxicology, School of Medicine
    Malaria parasites must respond quickly to environmental changes, including during their transmission between mammalian and mosquito hosts. Therefore, female gametocytes proactively produce and translationally repress mRNAs that encode essential proteins that the zygote requires to establish a new infection. While the release of translational repression of individual mRNAs has been documented, the details of the global release of translational repression have not. Moreover, changes in the spatial arrangement and composition of the DOZI/CITH/ALBA complex that contribute to translational control are also not known. Therefore, we have conducted the first quantitative, comparative transcriptomics and DIA-MS proteomics of Plasmodium parasites across the host-to-vector transmission event to document the global release of translational repression. Using female gametocytes and zygotes of P. yoelii, we found that ~200 transcripts are released for translation soon after fertilization, including those encoding essential functions. Moreover, we identified that many transcripts remain repressed beyond this point. TurboID-based proximity proteomics of the DOZI/CITH/ALBA regulatory complex revealed substantial spatial and/or compositional changes across this transmission event, which are consistent with recent, paradigm-shifting models of translational control. Together, these data provide a model for the essential translational control mechanisms that promote Plasmodium's efficient transmission from mammalian host to mosquito vector.