The Anopheles gambiae vitellogenin gene (VGT2) promoter directs persistent accumulation of a reporter gene product in transgenic Anopheles stephensi following multiple bloodmeals.

Mosquitoes made resistant to pathogens through genetic engineering are proposed as a basis for developing a strategy to control disease transmission. Transgenic approaches that introduce exogenous antipathogen effector genes into mosquito genomes require cis-acting regulatory DNA to control tissue-, stage-, and sex-specific transgene expression. We show that control sequences derived from a vitellogenin-encoding gene of Anopheles gambiae, a major vector in sub-Saharan Africa, can direct expression of an exogenous gene in a tissue-, stage-, and sex-specific manner in Anopheles stephensi, a vector of urban malaria in southern Asia.

Differential gene expression in abdomens of the malaria vector mosquito, Anopheles gambiae, after sugar feeding, blood feeding and Plasmodium berghei infection.

Background: Large scale sequencing of cDNA libraries can provide profiles of genes expressed in an organism under defined biological and environmental circumstances. We have analyzed sequences of 4541 Expressed Sequence Tags (ESTs) from 3 different cDNA libraries created from abdomens from Plasmodium infection-susceptible adult female Anopheles gambiae. These libraries were made from sugar fed (S), rat blood fed (RB), and P.

Encapsulation of Myxobolus pendula (Myxosporidia) by epithelioid cells of its cyprinid host Semotilus atromaculatus.

Spores of Myxobolus pendula develop within the cores of complex cysts on the gill arch of creek chub Semotilus atromaculatus. Adjacent to, and surrounding, the spores are concentric layers of stratified interdigitating cells, whose nature was examined by transmission electron microscopy and by immunohistochemical and molecular biological techniques. In situ hybridization data using parasite-derived ribosomal DNA as a probe indicate that infection leads to the encapsulation of developing plasmodia by host immune cells that form an epithelioid granuloma.

Gene expression patterns associated with blood-feeding in the malaria mosquito Anopheles gambiae.

Background: Blood feeding, or hematophagy, is a behavior exhibited by female mosquitoes required both for reproduction and for transmission of pathogens. We determined the expression patterns of 3,068 ESTs, representing ~2,000 unique gene transcripts using cDNA microarrays in adult female Anopheles gambiae at selected times during the first two days following blood ingestion, at 5 and 30 min during a 40 minute blood meal and at 0, 1, 3, 5, 12, 16, 24 and 48 hours after completion of the blood meal and compared their expression to transcript levels in mosquitoes with access only to a sugar solution.

Results: In blood-fed mosquitoes, 413 unique transcripts, approximately 25% of the total, were expressed at least two-fold above or below their levels in the sugar-fed mosquitoes, at one or more time points.

Quantitative trait loci in Anopheles gambiae controlling the encapsulation response against Plasmodium cynomolgi Ceylon.

Background: Anopheles gambiae females are the world's most successful vectors of human malaria. However, a fraction of these mosquitoes is refractory to Plasmodium development. L3-5, a laboratory selected refractory strain, encapsulates transforming ookinetes/early oocysts of a wide variety of Plasmodium species.