title: The Anopheles gambiae salivary protein gSG6: an anopheline-specific protein with a blood-feeding role.
abstract: The Anopheles gambiae salivary gland protein 6 (gSG6) is a small protein specifically found in the salivary glands of adult female mosquitoes. We report here the expression of a recombinant form of the protein and we show that in vivo gSG6 is expressed in distal-lateral lobes and is secreted with the saliva while the female mosquito probes for feeding. Injection of gSG6 dsRNA into adult A. gambiae females results in decreased gSG6 protein levels, increased probing time and reduced blood feeding ability. gSG6 orthologs have been found so far only in the salivary glands of Anopheles stephensi and Anopheles funestus, both members of the Cellia subgenus. We report here the gSG6 sequence from five additional anophelines, four species of the A. gambiae complex and Anopheles freeborni, a member of the subgenus Anopheles. We conclude that gSG6 plays some essential blood feeding role and was recruited in the anopheline subfamily most probably after the separation of the lineage which gave origin to Cellia and Anopheles subgenera.
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Scienze di Sanità Pubblica, Sezione di Parassitologia, Università La Sapienza, Piazzale Aldo Moro 5, 00185 Roma, Italy.
authors.forename: Fabrizio
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Lombardo
authors.forename: Raffaele
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Ronca
authors.forename: Cinzia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Rizzo
authors.forename: Montserrat
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Mestres-Simòn
authors.forename: Alessandra
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Lanfrancotti
authors.forename: Chiara
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Currà
authors.forename: Gabriella
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Fiorentino
authors.forename: Catherine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Bourgouin
authors.forename: Josè M C
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Ribeiro
authors.forename: Vincenzo
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Petrarca
authors.forename: Marta
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ponzi
authors.forename: Mario
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Coluzzi
authors.forename: Bruno
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Arcà
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D000852:Anopheles / Q000737:chemistry / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*; D005247:Feeding Behavior; D005260:Female; D015870:Gene Expression; D006168:Guinea Pigs; D007299:Insect Bites and Stings; D019476:Insect Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D012469:Salivary Glands / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism; D012471:Salivary Proteins and Peptides / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D013045:Species Specificity
chemical_list: D019476:Insect Proteins; D012471:Salivary Proteins and Peptides