| carbohydrate-binding specificities of anti-erythrocyte lectins (haemagglutinins) in anopheles gambiae gut extracts and haemolymph. | lectins that agglutinate red blood cells (rbc) were demonstrated in anopheles gambiae mosquito haemolymph and gut extracts. no apparent differences in haemagglutinin titres were detected between male and female mosquitoes and overall agglutinin levels were not increased following a bloodmeal. titres were highest in the haemolymph and midgut extracts versus human ab, horse, chicken and goat rbcs and in hindgut against human ab, chicken and sheep; foregut extract gave relatively low titres. adsorp ... | 1992 | 1421501 |
| controlling malaria transmission with genetically-engineered, plasmodium-resistant mosquitoes: milestones in a model system. | we are developing transgenic mosquitoes resistant to malaria parasites to test the hypothesis that genetically-engineered mosquitoes can be used to block the transmission of the parasites. we are developing and testing many of the necessary methodologies with the avian malaria parasite, plasmodium gallinaceum, and its laboratory vector, aedes aegypti, in anticipation of engaging the technical challenges presented by the malaria parasite, p. falciparum, and its major african vector, anopheles gam ... | 1999 | 10697903 |
| immune activation upregulates lysozyme gene expression in aedes aegypti mosquito cell culture. | after stimulation with heat-killed bacteria, cultured cells from the mosquito aedes aegypti (aag-2 cells) secreted an induced protein with a mass of approximately 16 kda that cross-reacted with antibody to chicken egg lysozyme. to investigate whether lysozyme messenger rna is induced in bacteria-treated cells, we used polymerase chain reaction-based approaches to obtain the complete lysozyme cdna from aag-2 cells. the deduced protein contained 148 amino acids, including a 23 amino acid signal se ... | 2000 | 11122464 |
| l-lactic acid: a human-signifying host cue for the anthropophilic mosquito anopheles gambiae. | using a dual-choice olfactometer, the role of l-lactic acid was investigated in relation to host-seeking and selection by female anopheles gambiae giles sensu stricto (diptera: culicidae) mosquitoes in a y-tube bioassay. l-lactic acid alone was not attractive, but it significantly augmented the attractiveness of co2, skin odour and skin-rubbing extracts from humans and other vertebrates. comparing the left and right index fingers of the same person, one could be made more attractive than the oth ... | 2002 | 11963986 |
| the histone-like c-terminal extension in ribosomal protein s6 in aedes and anopheles mosquitoes is encoded within the distal portion of exon 3. | in eukaryotic cells, ribosomal protein s6 (rps6) is the major phosphorylated protein on the small ribosomal subunit. in the mosquitoes aedes aegypti and aedes albopictus, the cdna encoding rps6 contains 300 additional nucleotides, relative to the drosophila homolog. the additional sequence encodes a 100-amino acid, lysine-rich c-terminal extension of the rps6 protein with 42-49% identity to histone h1 proteins from the chicken and other multicellular organisms. using mass spectrometry we now sho ... | 2003 | 12915181 |
| blood-meal analysis for anopheline mosquitoes sampled along the kenyan coast. | a total of 1,480 anopheles gambiae sensu lato and 439 an. funestus, collected from 30 sites along the kenyan coast, were tested by direct enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (elisa) for blood-meal identification. overall, the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (elisa) identified 92 and 87% of the samples tested in an. gambiae s.l. and an. funestus, respectively. of these, human igg was detected in 98.97% (n = 1,347) of an. gambiae s.l. and 99.48% (n = 379) of an. funestus. only 14 (1.03%) of the an ... | 2003 | 14710739 |
| inparanoid: a comprehensive database of eukaryotic orthologs. | the inparanoid eukaryotic ortholog database (http://inparanoid.cgb.ki.se/) is a collection of pairwise ortholog groups between 17 whole genomes; anopheles gambiae, caenorhabditis briggsae, caenorhabditis elegans, drosophila melanogaster, danio rerio, takifugu rubripes, gallus gallus, homo sapiens, mus musculus, pan troglodytes, rattus norvegicus, oryza sativa, plasmodium falciparum, arabidopsis thaliana, escherichia coli, saccharomyces cerevisiae and schizosaccharomyces pombe. complete proteomes ... | 2005 | 15608241 |
| evolutionarily conserved elements in vertebrate, insect, worm, and yeast genomes. | we have conducted a comprehensive search for conserved elements in vertebrate genomes, using genome-wide multiple alignments of five vertebrate species (human, mouse, rat, chicken, and fugu rubripes). parallel searches have been performed with multiple alignments of four insect species (three species of drosophila and anopheles gambiae), two species of caenorhabditis, and seven species of saccharomyces. conserved elements were identified with a computer program called phastcons, which is based o ... | 2005 | 16024819 |
| a multispecies comparison of the metazoan 3'-processing downstream elements and the cstf-64 rna recognition motif. | the cleavage stimulation factor (cstf) is a required protein complex for eukaryotic mrna 3'-processing. cstf interacts with 3'-processing downstream elements (dses) through its 64-kda subunit, cstf-64; however, the exact nature of this interaction has remained unclear. we used est-to-genome alignments to identify and extract large sets of putative 3'-processing sites for mrna from ten metazoan species, including homo sapiens, canis familiaris, rattus norvegicus, mus musculus, gallus gallus, dani ... | 2006 | 16542450 |
| evidence for a lectin specific for sulfated glycans in the salivary gland of the malaria vector, anopheles gambiae. | salivary gland homogenate (sgh) from the female mosquitoes anopheles gambiae, an. stephensi, an. freeborni, an. dirus and an. albimanus were found to exhibit hemagglutinating (lectin) activity. lectin activity was not found for male an. gambiae, or female ae aegypti, culex quinquefasciatus, phlebotomus duboscqi, and lutzomyia longipalpis. with respect to species-specificity, an. gambiae sgh agglutinates red blood cells (rbc) from humans, horse, sheep, goat, pig, and cow; it is less active for ra ... | 2014 | 25207644 |
| the fitness of african malaria vectors in the presence and limitation of host behaviour. | host responses are important sources of selection upon the host species range of ectoparasites and phytophagous insects. however little is known about the role of host responses in defining the host species range of malaria vectors. this study aimed to estimate the relative importance of host behaviour to the feeding success and fitness of african malaria vectors, and assess its ability to predict their known host species preferences in nature. | 2012 | 23253167 |
| malaria vectors and their blood-meal sources in an area of high bed net ownership in the western kenya highlands. | blood-meal sources of malaria vectors affect their capacity to transmit the disease. most efficient malaria vectors prefer human hosts. however, with increasing personal protection measures it becomes more difficult for them to find human hosts. here recent malaria vector blood-meal sources in western kenya highlands were investigated. | 2016 | 26857915 |
| mosquito host preferences affect their response to synthetic and natural odour blends. | the anthropophilic malaria mosquito anopheles gambiae sensu stricto (hereafter termed anopheles gambiae) primarily takes blood meals from humans, whereas its close sibling anopheles arabiensis is more opportunistic. previous studies have identified several compounds that play a critical role in the odour-mediated behaviour of an. gambiae. this study determined the effect of natural and synthetic odour blends on mosquitoes with different host preferences to better understand the host-seeking beha ... | 2015 | 25889954 |
| sunguru virus: a novel virus in the family rhabdoviridae isolated from a chicken in north-western uganda. | sunguru virus (sunv), a novel virus belonging to the highly diverse rhabdoviridae family, was isolated from a domestic chicken in the district of arua, uganda, in 2011. this is the first documented isolation of a rhabdovirus from a chicken. sunv is related to, but distinct from, boteke virus and other members of the unclassified sandjimba group. the genome is 11056 nt in length and contains the five core rhabdovirus genes plus an additional c gene (within the orf of a phosphoprotein gene) and a ... | 2014 | 24718834 |
| variation in host preferences of malaria mosquitoes is mediated by skin bacterial volatiles. | the host preferences of the anthropophilic mosquito species in the anopheles gambiae complex (diptera: culicidae) are mediated by skin bacterial volatiles. however, it is not known whether these mosquitoes respond differentially to skin bacterial volatiles from non-human host species. in this study, the responses of two malaria mosquito species in the an. gambiae complex, anopheles gambiae s.s. (hereafter, an. gambiae) and anopheles arabiensis, with different host preferences, to volatiles relea ... | 2017 | 28639690 |
| interventions that effectively target anopheles funestus mosquitoes could significantly improve control of persistent malaria transmission in south-eastern tanzania. | malaria is transmitted by many anopheles species whose proportionate contributions vary across settings. we re-assessed the roles of anopheles arabiensis and anopheles funestus, and examined potential benefits of species-specific interventions in an area in south-eastern tanzania, where malaria transmission persists, four years after mass distribution of long-lasting insecticide-treated nets (llins). monthly mosquito sampling was done in randomly selected households in three villages using cdc l ... | 2017 | 28542335 |
| maldi-tof ms identification of anopheles gambiae giles blood meal crushed on whatman filter papers. | identification of the source of mosquito blood meals is an important component for disease control and surveillance. recently, matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (maldi-tof ms) profiling has emerged as an effective tool for mosquito blood meal identification, using the abdomens of freshly engorged mosquitoes. in the field, mosquito abdomens are crushed on whatman filter papers to determine the host feeding patterns by identifying the origin of their bloo ... | 2017 | 28817629 |
| using maldi-tof ms to identify mosquitoes collected in mali and their blood meals. | matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (maldi-tof ms) has been recently described as an innovative and effective tool for identifying arthropods and mosquito blood meal sources. to test this approach in the context of an entomological survey in the field, mosquitoes were collected from five ecologically distinct areas of mali. we successfully analysed the blood meals from 651 mosquito abdomens crushed on whatman filter paper (wfps) in the field using maldi-t ... | 2018 | 29409547 |