Identification and characterization of a putative sevenless homologue in the malaria vector Anopheles gambiae.
Tyrosine kinase sequences were identified and characterized in Anopheles gambiae, the major vector of malaria in subsaharan Africa. One of these sequences has the characteristics expected for a homologue of the Drosophila sevenless gene, which is necessary for R7 photoreceptor cell fate determination in the developing compound eye. The putative Anopheles sevenless gene homologue is located in a telomeric region of the X chromosome and is expressed in the head of late larval and pupal stage mosquitoes. Identification of the Anopheles homologue of the sevenless gene is a first step towards the development of a dominant phenotypic marker that could be used for detecting transformed Anopheles mosquitoes in a wide variety of genetic backgrounds and, as such, could be used in the development of transgenic mosquitoes for the control of parasite transmission. Preliminary evidence for sevenless sequences were also found in DNA from blackfly, Mediterranean fruit fly and the honeybee.
Kobayashi
A
A
Laboratoire de Biologie Moléculaire de la Drosophile, Institut Pasteur, Paris, France. ayakoba@ims.u-tokyo.ac.jp
Brey
P T
PT
Katsube
K
K
della Torre
A
A
Roth
C W
CW
Natori
S
S
Ollo
R
R
D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D000852:Anopheles / Q000235:genetics*; D001483:Base Sequence; D002874:Chromosome Mapping; D018076:DNA, Complementary; D029721:Drosophila Proteins; D005123:Eye / Q000254:growth & development; D005136:Eye Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D015870:Gene Expression; D017344:Genes, Insect; D019476:Insect Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D007303:Insect Vectors / Q000235:genetics*; D008288:Malaria; D008562:Membrane Glycoproteins / Q000235:genetics*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D020794:Receptor Protein-Tyrosine Kinases; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid; D016615:Telomere; D014960:X Chromosome
D018076:DNA, Complementary; D029721:Drosophila Proteins; D005136:Eye Proteins; D019476:Insect Proteins; D008562:Membrane Glycoproteins; D020794:Receptor Protein-Tyrosine Kinases; C056737:sev protein, Drosophila