Measuring Seasonal Differences in Transcripts Associated with Host-Seeking in Mosquitoes
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Date
2024-05
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The Ohio State University
Abstract
Female Northern house mosquitoes, Culex pipiens, seek vertebrate hosts so that they can consume their blood, and in the process may transmit pathogens. Female Cx. pipiens enter diapause, a state of arrested development, during the winter months where they accumulate fat by feeding exclusively on nectar and remain dormant until the following spring. Therefore, although non-diapausing and post-diapausing female mosquitoes feed on blood, diapausing mosquitoes do not search for hosts. Recent research has shown that in other species of mosquitoes, certain odorant binding proteins (OBPs) and odorant receptors (ORs) are upregulated and allow females to seek a host. However, we do not know which OBPs and ORs regulate host-seeking in Cx. pipiens. The goal of this experiment was to determine the impact of certain OBPs and ORs on the host-seeking behavior of mosquitoes. OBPs and ORs that regulate host seeking and were more abundantly expressed in other species of female mosquitoes relative to male mosquitoes were selected as targets of interest. I identified their homologous sequences in the genome of the Southern house mosquito, Cx. quinquefasciatus, and designed, tested, and validated primers that could accurately measure the abundance of target OBPs and ORs using Quantitative Real-Time (qRT-PCR). Mosquitoes were reared in short-day, diapausing-inducing and long-day, non-diapausing conditions. RNA was isolated from the antennae and mouthparts of female mosquitoes and then synthesized into cDNA, and qRT-PCR was used to measure the abundance of the OBPs and ORs in diapausing and non-diapausing female mosquitoes. Although the target OBPs and ORs were detected in female mosquitoes, there was no differential expression of the selected OBPs and ORs in non-diapausing and diapausing female Cx. pipiens mosquito. Therefore, additional research is needed to determine whether the selected OBP and OR are involved in host-seeking behavior in Cx. pipiens.
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Keywords
Mosquitoes, Host-Seeking, Odorant Binding Proteins, Odorant Receptors, Transcripts, Diapause