Improved annotation of Lutzomyia longipalpis genome using bioinformatics analysis

Abstract

Lutzomyia longipalpis, a sand fly, is a vector-spreading pathogenic protozoan in the New World. MicroRNA (miRNA) is evolutionarily-conserved non-coding RNA, which plays critical roles in various biological processes. To date, the functions of most proteins in L. longipalpis are unknown, and few studies have addressed the roles of miRNAs in this species. In the present study, we re-annotated the protein-coding genes and identified several miRNAs using a set of comparative genomics tools. A large number of L. longipalpis proteins were found to be homologous with those in the mosquito genome, indicating that they may have experienced similar selective pressures. Among these proteins, a set of 19 putative salivary proteins were identified, which could be used for studying the transmission of Leishmania. Twenty-one novel miRNAs were characterized, including two miRNAs, miR-4113-5p and miR-5101, which are unique to L. longipalpis. Many of the targets of these two genes were found to be involved in ATP hydrolysis-coupled proton transport, suggesting that they may have important roles in the physiology of energy production. Topology analysis of the miRNA-gene network indicated that miR-9388-5p and miR-3871-5p regulate several critical genes in response to disease development. In conclusion, our work provides a basis for improving the genome annotation of L. longipalpis, and opens a new door to understanding the molecular regulatory mechanisms in this species.

MicroRNAs: Biological Regulators in Pathogen–Host Interactions

“…Regarding the invertebrate host, phlebotomine sandflies are well recognized as vectors for species of Leishmania and a wide range of pathogens, such as bacteria and viruses, with the regulation of miRNAs favoring pathogen survival and transmission [94][95][96]. Yang and Wu discriminated miRNAs from other noncoding RNAs in Lutzomya longipalpis, a vector of leishmaniasis in the Americas and also suggest the role of miRNA targeting genes involved in Leishmania infection, such as llo-miR-9388-5p and llo-miR-3871-5p [97] in Phlebotomus perniciosus, a major vector of Leishmania infantum in Europe [98].…”

microRNA Expression Dynamics in Culicoides sonorensis Biting Midges Following Blood-Feeding

“…Our data revealed Culicoides cso-miR-956 was enriched in midgut tissues. In miRBase, miR-956 is only described in Drosophila but has been reported in multiple Dipteran taxa, including Culicomorpha (Culicidae) and Calyptratae muscoids (Sarcophagidae and Calliphoridae) [49,[55][56][57][58]. Work on Drosophila has alluded to multiple potential functions of miR-956, as this miRNA is thought to regulate the circadian rhythm [59] and has been recently shown to have a role in intestinal cell differentiation [60].…”

Characterisation of Geranylgeranyl Diphosphate Synthase from the Sandfly Lutzomyia Longipalpis

“…We carried out blastp and tblastn searches to identify GGPPS homologues from the recently published L. longipalpis genome (Jacobina, NCBI accession PRJNA20279) and a transcriptomic study of the midgut of lab-raised female sandflies (Jacobina, NCBI accession PRJNA649559), looking for amino acid sequence similarities and particularly presence of the conserved aspartate rich motifs (Coutinho-Abreu et al, 2020;Labbé et al, 2023). Two strong candidates, which we named lzGGPPS1 (GITU01003271.1/A0A7G3AJG6) and lzGGPPS2 (A0A1B0CWK5) were identified (Yang and Wu, 2019). The former was obtained from both transcriptomic and genomic data and the latter from genomic data only.…”