title: The malaria vector mosquito Anopheles gambiae expresses a suite of larval-specific defensin genes.
abstract: cDNAs of Anopheles gambiae Defensin 2 (AgDef2), Defensin 3 (AgDef3) and Defensin 4 (AgDef4), identified in the genome sequence, have been characterized and their expression profiles investigated. In contrast to both typical defensins and insect antimicrobial peptides generally, the newly identified defensins were not upregulated with acute-phase kinetics following immune challenge in insects or cell culture. However, mRNA abundance of AgDef2, AgDef3 and AgDef4 increased significantly during the larval stages. Promoter analysis of all three genes failed to identify putative immune response elements previously identified in other mosquito defensin genes. As previous studies failed to identify these larval-specific defensins, it seems likely that further antimicrobial peptide genes with nontypical expression profiles will be identified as more genome sequences become available.
authors: School of Life Sciences, Keele University, Staffordshire, UK.
authors: J M
authors: JM
authors: Meredith
authors: H
authors: H
authors: Hurd
authors: M J
authors: MJ
authors: Lehane
authors: P
authors: P
authors: Eggleston
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D000852:Anopheles / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D001483:Base Sequence; D004247:DNA / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics; D023082:Defensins / Q000096:biosynthesis* / Q000235:genetics; D018507:Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental; D007303:Insect Vectors / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D007814:Larva / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D019105:Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA Technique; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D014158:Transcription, Genetic
chemical_list: D023082:Defensins; D004247:DNA