Publications by authors named "Marinotti O"

Article Synopsis
  • * Researchers collected water samples from eight sites and isolated 206 fungal strains, grouping them into 30 different morphotypes.
  • * Fungi were identified through microscopy and DNA sequencing, revealing a predominance of Ascomycota, and significantly advancing our understanding of fungi in mosquito breeding habitats.
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Highly anthropophilic and adapted to urban environments, Aedes aegypti mosquitoes are the main vectors of arboviruses that cause human diseases such as dengue, zika, and chikungunya fever, especially in countries with tropical and subtropical climates. Microorganisms with mosquitocidal and larvicidal activities have been suggested as environmentally safe alternatives to chemical or mechanical mosquito control methods. Here, we analyzed cultivable bacteria isolated from all stages of the mosquito life cycle for their larvicidal activity against Ae.

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Article Synopsis
  • Mosquitoes are known to spread diseases like malaria, dengue, and Zika, prompting the search for innovative control methods beyond traditional insecticides.
  • Research is uncovering various microorganisms that could effectively manage mosquito populations and their ability to transmit these diseases, but successful application depends on understanding the complex interactions between these microorganisms, mosquitoes, pathogens, and their environment.
  • Despite significant scientific progress in identifying potential biocontrol agents and their mechanisms, few have been developed into practical products, indicating a need for more investment in research and biotech development for effective mosquito control solutions.
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Background: The neotropical anopheline mosquito Anopheles darlingi is a major malaria vector in the Americas. Studies on mosquito-associated microbiota have shown that symbiotic bacteria play a major role in host biology. Mosquitoes acquire and transmit microorganisms over their life cycle.

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The global increase in diseases transmitted by the vector , new and re-emerging, underscores the need for alternative and more effective methods of controlling mosquitoes. Our aim was to identify fungal strains from the Amazon rain forest that produce metabolites with larvicidal activity against . Thirty-six fungal strains belonging to 23 different genera of fungi, isolated from water samples collected in the state of Amazonas, Brazil were cultivated.

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Taxonomic reassignments were suggested for Neotropical anopheline malaria vectors, elevating four monophyletic groups Kerteszia, Lophopodomyia, Nyssorhynchus, and Stethomyia to the genus level, upending their conventional status as subgenera of the genus Anopheles. Two questions are proposed. Do the advantages of reclassification outweigh its disadvantages? Is the reclassification generally accepted and/or scientifically imperative?

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The mosquito is the primary vector of Dengue, Chikungunya and Zika causing major problems for public health, which requires new strategies for its control, like the use of entomopathogenic microorganisms. In this study, bacteria from various Amazonian environments were isolated and tested for their pathogenicity to larvae. Following thermal shock to select sporulated spp.

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The genome assembly of consists of 2221 scaffolds (N50 = 115,072 bp) and has a size spanning 136.94 Mbp. This assembly represents one of the smallest genomes among species.

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Background: Malaria remains a major public health problem in South America, mostly in the Amazon region. Among newly proposed ways of controlling malaria transmission to humans, paratransgenesis is a promising alternative. Paratransgenesis aims to inhibit the development of parasites within the vector through the action of genetically modified bacteria.

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In Brazil, malaria transmission is mostly confined to the Amazon, where substantial progress has been made towards disease control in the past decade. Vector control has been historically considered a fundamental part of the main malaria control programs implemented in Brazil. However, the conventional vector-control tools have been insufficient to control or eliminate local vector populations due to the complexity of the Amazonian rainforest environment and ecological features of malaria vector species in the Amazon, especially .

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The passage of the 2018 United States Agriculture Improvement Act removed industrial hemp, defined as L. containing less than 0.3% THC content by dry weight, from Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act and made it an agricultural commodity.

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The market for products featuring hemp extracts is large and growing larger. However, safety concerns have been raised by medical and regulatory agencies. Post marketing surveillance of full spectrum hemp extract (FSHE) products manufactured and distributed by CV Sciences (CVSI) and traded under the brand PlusCBD™ was conducted over a 2-year period (2018-2019).

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The microbiota in mosquito breeding waters can affect ovipositing mosquitoes, have effects on larval development, and can modify adult mosquito-gut bacterial composition. This, in turn, can affect transmission of human pathogens such as malaria parasites. Here, we explore the microbiota of four breeding sites for Anopheles darlingi, the most important malaria vector in Latin America.

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The mobilome, portion of the genome composed of transposable elements (TEs), of Anopheles darlingi was described together with the genome of this species. Here, this mobilome was revised using similarity and de novo search approaches. A total of 5.

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Transposons are a class of selfish DNA elements that can mobilize within a genome. If mobilization is accompanied by an increase in copy number (replicative transposition), the transposon may sweep through a population until it is fixed in all of its interbreeding members. This introgression has been proposed as the basis for drive systems to move genes with desirable phenotypes into target species.

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A Gram-stain-negative, rod-shaped strain, Braz8T, isolated from larvae of Anopheles darlingi was investigated using a polyphasic approach. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences showed that strain Braz8T was related most closely to species of the genus Thorsellia, with 95.6, 96.

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Mitochondrial genome sequences are widely used as molecular markers for phylogenetic studies of mosquito species complexes, such as the Anopheles albitarsis complex. Except for a few studies that employed a limited number of nuclear or mitochondrial loci to address the genetic structure and species status of Anopheles cruzii, Anopheles bellator, and Anopheles homunculus, little is known about genetic markers that can be employed in studies focusing on Kerteszia species. The complete mitochondrial genomes of seven specimens of An.

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Background: The circumsporozoite protein is the most abundant polypeptide expressed by sporozoites, the malaria parasite stage capable of infecting humans. Sporozoite invasion of mosquito salivary glands prior to transmission is likely mediated by a receptor/ligand-like interaction of the parasites with the target tissues, and the amino (NH2)-terminal portion of CSP is involved in this interaction but not the TSR region on the carboxyl (C)-terminus. Peptides based on the NH2-terminal domain could compete with the parasites for the salivary gland receptors and thus inhibit penetration.

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Article Synopsis
  • Anopheles aquasalis is a key malaria vector in coastal South and Central America, particularly affecting malaria transmission by breeding in brackish water and showing high susceptibility to Plasmodium vivax.
  • The study sequenced and assembled over 419,000 cDNA reads into 7,544 contigs, identifying protein-coding transcripts mostly similar to those in another malaria vector, An. darlingi, with specific transcripts linked to immune response and digestion after blood meals.
  • This research marks the first comprehensive transcriptome analysis of An. aquasalis, enhancing our understanding of its biology and potentially leading to new malaria control strategies.
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Article Synopsis
  • Mosquito salivary glands play a crucial role in blood feeding and pathogen transmission, but the function of many salivary proteins is not fully understood.
  • A study on Aegyptin, a protein from the Aedes aegypti mosquito that inhibits platelet aggregation, used genetically modified mosquitoes to show that reduced Aegyptin levels led to longer feeding times and decreased feeding success.
  • The results suggest that Aegyptin is essential for efficient blood feeding in mosquitoes and highlight that multiple salivary components work together rather than being functionally redundant.
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Background: Mosquito eggshells show remarkable diversity in physical properties and structure consistent with adaptations to the wide variety of environments exploited by these insects. We applied proteomic, transcriptomic, and hybridization in situ techniques to identify gene products and pathways that participate in the assembly of the Aedes aegypti eggshell. Aedes aegypti population density is low during cold and dry seasons and increases immediately after rainfall.

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Article Synopsis
  • Aedes aegypti mosquitoes are key carriers of dengue viruses, prompting the need for new strategies to control their populations and halt virus transmission.
  • The study focused on the Ae. aegypti gene AAEL010714, which codes for an odorant-binding protein, AaegOBP45, found mainly in the ovaries of blood-fed female mosquitoes.
  • The research confirmed the gene's structure and suggested that AaegOBP45 may play a role in forming the mosquito's eggshell.
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Insect storage proteins accumulate at high levels during larval development of holometabolous insects. During metamorphosis they are degraded, supplying energy and amino acids for the completion of adult development. The genome of Culex quinquefasciatus contains eleven storage protein-coding genes.

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