Molecular analysis of the serine/threonine kinase Akt and its expression in the mosquito Aedes aegypti

A key component of the insulin-signalling pathway, the protein kinase Akt, was identified and cloned as a cDNA from ovaries of the mosquito Aedes aegypti . An ortholog gene was found in the Anopheles gambiae genome database, and like other Akts, both mosquito Akts possess pleckstrin homology domains for membrane binding and a serine/threonine kinase domain. When Ae. aegypti ovaries were treated with bovine insulin in vitro , a putative Akt was threonine-phosphorylated, as expected for Akts. AaegAKT was only expressed in embryos for the first 6 h after oviposition and in ovaries before and during a gonotrophic cycle.