The evolution of purinergic receptors involved in recognition of a blood meal by hematophagous insects

Abstract

Many blood feeders use adenine nucleotides as cues for locating blood meal. Structure-activity relationship of adenine nucleotides as phagostimulants varies between closely-related species of blood feeders. It is suggested that a preexisting diverse pool of nucleotide-binding proteins present in all living cells, serves as a source of receptor proteins for the gustatory receptors involved in blood detection. It is proposed that the selection of any such nucleotide-binding protein is random.

Gorging response of Glossina palpalis palpalis to ATP analogues

“…1969). The mosquitoes Ae.aegypti (Galun et al, 1985), Culex pipiens and Culiseta inornata (Galun et al, 1987) also show complete dependence on the NH2 group at the C6 position of the purine. R.prolixus can be stimulated to gorge by both GTP and ITP, but both compounds are active at 1&20X the concentration of ATP (Friend & Smith, 1982).…”

“…aegypti and Ae.caspius removal of oxygen from either the C2 or the C3 reduced activity to one half that of ATP. However, removing oxygen from both positions (2'3'dd ATP) increased the potency of the molecules many fold over that of ATP (Galun et al, 1985;Galun, 1987). Unlike the aedine mosquitoes, Cx pipiens requires the hydroxyl group at the C2, and 2'3'dd ATP is not stimulatory at all (Galun et al, 1988).…”

“…A similar response to the length of the phosphate chain is exhibited by Culiseta inornata (Galun et al, 1988) and by Simulium venusturn (Sutcliffe & McIver, 1979) where ADP is only slightly more effective than ATP and AMP is far inferior. The mosquito Cx pipiens is stimulated very effectively by ATP, ADP and also by AMP, and it is proposed that like the spiny lobster (Carr et al, 1986) Cx pipiens may possess both the P1 and P2 receptor types (Galun et at., 1987). On the other hand, R.prolixus, Ae.aegypti and Ae.caspius exhibit the following potency order in their gorging responses: ATP>ADP>AMP, with one order of magnitude reduction following elimination of each phosphate group (Friend & Smith, 1982;Galun, 1987).…”

“…The mosquito Cx pipiens is stimulated very effectively by ATP, ADP and also by AMP, and it is proposed that like the spiny lobster (Carr et al, 1986) Cx pipiens may possess both the P1 and P2 receptor types (Galun et at., 1987). On the other hand, R.prolixus, Ae.aegypti and Ae.caspius exhibit the following potency order in their gorging responses: ATP>ADP>AMP, with one order of magnitude reduction following elimination of each phosphate group (Friend & Smith, 1982;Galun, 1987).…”

Blood constituents as phagostimulants for the bed bug,Cimex lectularius L

“…The use of adenine nucleotides as cues to recognize a blood meal by many unrelated blood-feeder arthropods indicates that hematophagy evolved independently (Galun, 1987b;Ribeiro, 1987). Despite the convergent evolution of hematophagy, studies of feeding responses of various hematophagous arthropods to artificial diets containing adenine nucleotide analogues show that there is a great diversity of structure-activity relationships of adenine nucleotide receptors Galun et al, 1985;Galun and Kabayo, 1988;Galun, 1989;Friend and Stoffolano, 1990).…”