Temporal Coordination of Carbohydrate Metabolism during Mosquito Reproduction

Abstract

Hematophagous mosquitoes serve as vectors of multiple devastating human diseases, and many unique physiological features contribute to the incredible evolutionary success of these insects. These functions place high-energy demands on a reproducing female mosquito, and carbohydrate metabolism (CM) must be synchronized with these needs. Functional analysis of metabolic gene profiling showed that major CM pathways, including glycolysis, glycogen and sugar metabolism, and citrate cycle, are dramatically repressed at post eclosion (PE) stage in mosquito fat body followed by a sharply increase at post-blood meal (PBM) stage, which were also verified by Real-time RT-PCR. Consistent to the change of transcript and protein level of CM genes, the level of glycogen, glucose and trehalose and other secondary metabolites are also periodically accumulated and degraded during the reproductive cycle respectively. Levels of triacylglycerols (TAG), which represent another important energy storage form in the mosquito fat body, followed a similar tendency. On the other hand, ATP, which is generated by catabolism of these secondary metabolites, showed an opposite trend. Additionally, we used RNA interference studies for the juvenile hormone and ecdysone receptors, Met and EcR, coupled with transcriptomics and metabolomics analyses to show that these hormone receptors function as major regulatory switches coordinating CM with the differing energy requirements of the female mosquito throughout its reproductive cycle. Our study demonstrates how, by metabolic reprogramming, a multicellular organism adapts to drastic and rapid functional changes.

Differential immune responses of Monochamus alternatus against symbiotic and entomopathogenic fungi

“…Moreover, in order to confirm enriched GO terms, all unigenes were subjected to gene ontology (GO) enrichment analysis through BLAST2GO against GO database. Finally, based on the KEGG (Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes database) analysis, we detected the enriched pathway and metabolic networks at the KEGG website (Hou et al, 2015). The R package RSEM was used to calculate the fragments per kilobase of exon per million fragments mapped (FPKM) value (Tu et al, 2012).…”

Determination of juvenile hormone titers by means of LC-MS/MS/MS and a juvenile hormone-responsive Gal4/UAS system in Aedes aegypti mosquitoes

“…In the gut, transcripts of ET and JHA15 genes are elevated significantly at 36 h PE, maintaining a high level until a blood meal (Bian et al, 2008; Noriega et al, 1996a; Noriega et al, 1996b). Several molecular studies have demonstrated that large clusters of JH-activated genes exhibit their peaks at 60–72 h PE, while JH-repressed genes are at their lowest at that time (Zou et al, 2013; Hou et al, 2015; Saha et al, 2016). …”

“…Sample preparation was followed as described previously (Chen et al, 2007; Hou et al, 2015; Westerlund and Hoffmann, 2004) with some modification. Briefly, whole body mosquito samples were homogenized with 400 µl 80% methanol and centrifuged for 10 min at 12000 g at 4 °C.…”

“…In the fat body, JH stimulates the accumulation of glycogen and lipid droplets and cellular remodeling that includes the buildup of biosynthetic machinery and ribosomes (Hou et al, 2015; Raikhel and Lea, 1990; Zou et al, 2013). In the gut, rough endoplasmic reticulum aggregates after eclosion and this can be blocked if the corpora allata (the source of JH) was surgically removed from newly emerged adult females (Rossignol et al, 1982).…”

“…In the gut, rough endoplasmic reticulum aggregates after eclosion and this can be blocked if the corpora allata (the source of JH) was surgically removed from newly emerged adult females (Rossignol et al, 1982). Genomic studies of the fat body using microarray and RNA-sequencing demonstrated that JH and its receptor Methoprene-tolerant (Met) differentially regulate a large cohort of genes during the PE phase (Hou et al, 2015; Zou et al, 2013). …”