Journal
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Volume 102, Issue 44, Pages 15912-15917Publisher
NATL ACAD SCIENCES
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0507958102
Keywords
insect diapause; overwintering; sugar feeding; digestive enzymes; fat storage
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Funding
- NIAID NIH HHS [R01 AI058279] Funding Source: Medline
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A key characteristic of overwintering dormancy (diapause) in the mosquito Culex pipiens is the switch in females from blood feeding to sugar gluttony. We present evidence demonstrating that genes encoding enzymes needed to digest a blood meal (trypsin and a chymotrypsin-like protease) are down-regulated in diapause-destined females, and that concurrently, a gene associated with the accumulation of lipid reserves (fatty acid synthase) is highly upregulated. As the females then enter diapause, fatty acid synthase is only sporadically expressed, and expression of trypsin and chymotrypsin-like remains undetectable. Late in diapause (2-3 months at 18 degrees C), the genes encoding the digestive enzymes begin to be expressed as the female prepares to take a blood meal upon the termination of diapause. Our results thus underscore a molecular switch that either capacitates the mosquito for blood feeding (nondiapause) or channels the adult mosquito exclusively toward sugar feeding and lipid sequestration (diapause).
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