Life cycle transcriptome of the malaria mosquito Anopheles gambiae and comparison with the fruitfly Drosophila melanogaster.
The African mosquito Anopheles gambiae is the major vector of human malaria. We report a genome-wide survey of mosquito gene expression profiles clustered temporally into developmental programs and spatially into adult tissue-specific patterns. Global expression analysis shows that genes that belong to related functional categories or that encode the same or functionally linked protein domains are associated with characteristic developmental programs or tissue patterns. Comparative analysis of our data together with data published from Drosophila melanogaster reveal an overall strong and positive correlation of developmental expression between orthologous genes. The degree of correlation varies, depending on association of orthologs with certain developmental programs or functional groups. Interestingly, the similarity of gene expression is not correlated with the coding sequence similarity of orthologs, indicating that expression profiles and coding sequences evolve independently. In addition to providing a comprehensive view of temporal and spatial gene expression during the A. gambiae life cycle, this large-scale comparative transcriptomic analysis has detected important evolutionary features of insect transcriptomes.
Koutsos
Anastasios C
AC
Division of Cell and Molecular Biology, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Imperial College London, SW7 2AZ London, United Kingdom.
Blass
Claudia
C
Meister
Stephan
S
Schmidt
Sabine
S
MacCallum
Robert M
RM
Soares
Marcelo B
MB
Collins
Frank H
FH
Benes
Vladimir
V
Zdobnov
Evgeny
E
Kafatos
Fotis C
FC
Christophides
George K
GK
D000818:Animals; D000852:Anopheles / Q000235:genetics* / Q000254:growth & development / Q000378:metabolism; D004331:Drosophila melanogaster / Q000235:genetics* / Q000254:growth & development / Q000378:metabolism; D005260:Female; D018507:Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental / Q000235:genetics*; D007303:Insect Vectors / Q000235:genetics; D008018:Life Cycle Stages / Q000235:genetics* / Q000502:physiology; D008288:Malaria / Q000469:parasitology; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D014158:Transcription, Genetic
D012333:RNA, Messenger