High degree of conservancy among secreted salivary gland proteins from two geographically distant Phlebotomus duboscqi sandflies populations (Mali and Kenya).
BACKGROUND
Salivary proteins from sandflies are potential targets for exploitation as vaccines to control Leishmania infection; in this work we tested the hypothesis that salivary proteins from geographically distant Phlebotomus duboscqi sandfly populations are highly divergent due to the pressure exerted by the host immune response. Salivary gland cDNA libraries were prepared from wild-caught P. duboscqi from Mali and recently colonised flies of the same species from Kenya.


RESULTS
Transcriptome and proteome analysis resulted in the identification of the most abundant salivary gland-secreted proteins. Orthologues of these salivary proteins were identified by phylogenetic tree analysis. Moreover, comparative analysis between the orthologues of these two different populations resulted in a high level of protein identity, including the predicted MHC class II T-cell epitopes from all these salivary proteins.


CONCLUSIONS
These data refute the hypothesis that salivary proteins from geographically distinct populations of the same Phlebotomus sandfly species are highly divergent. They also suggest the potential for using the same species-specific components in a potential vector saliva-based vaccine.
Kato
Hirotomo
H
Vector Molecular Biology Unit, Laboratory of Malaria and Vector Research, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Rockville, Maryland, USA. katoh@yamaguchi-u.ac.jp
Anderson
Jennifer M
JM
Kamhawi
Shaden
S
Oliveira
Fabiano
F
Lawyer
Phillip G
PG
Pham
Van My
VM
Sangare
Constance Souko
CS
Samake
Sibiry
S
Sissoko
Ibrahim
I
Garfield
Mark
M
Sigutova
Lucie
L
Volf
Petr
P
Doumbia
Seydou
S
Valenzuela
Jesus G
JG
D000351:Africa, Eastern; D000354:Africa, Western; D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D018076:DNA, Complementary / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics; D015723:Gene Library; D005843:Geography; D019476:Insect Proteins / Q000235:genetics; D007630:Kenya; D008302:Mali; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010691:Phlebotomus / Q000235:genetics*; D010802:Phylogeny; D040901:Proteomics / Q000379:methods; D012471:Salivary Proteins and Peptides / Q000235:genetics*; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA
D018076:DNA, Complementary; D019476:Insect Proteins; D012471:Salivary Proteins and Peptides