title: Four-way regulation of mosquito yolk protein precursor genes by juvenile hormone-, ecdysone-, nutrient-, and insulin-like peptide signaling pathways.
abstract: Anautogenous mosquito females require a meal of vertebrate blood in order to initiate the production of yolk protein precursors by the fat body. Yolk protein precursor gene expression is tightly repressed in a state-of-arrest before blood meal-related signals activate it and expression levels rise rapidly. The best understood example of yolk protein precursor gene regulation is the vitellogenin-A gene (vg) of the yellow fever mosquito Aedes aegypti. Vg-A is regulated by (1) juvenile hormone signaling, (2) the ecdysone-signaling cascade, (3) the nutrient sensitive target-of-rapamycin signaling pathway, and (4) the insulin-like peptide (ILP) signaling pathway. A plethora of new studies have refined our understanding of the regulation of yolk protein precursor genes since the last review on this topic in 2005 (Attardo et al., 2005). This review summarizes the role of these four signaling pathways in the regulation of vg-A and focuses upon new findings regarding the interplay between them on an organismal level.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, New Mexico State University Las Cruces, NM, USA ; Institute for Applied Biosciences, New Mexico State University Las Cruces, NM, USA ; Molecular Biology Program, New Mexico State University Las Cruces, NM, USA.
authors.forename: Immo A
authors.initials: IA
authors.lastname: Hansen
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology of Microbial Disease, Yale School of Medicine, Yale University New Haven, CT, USA.
authors.forename: Geoffrey M
authors.initials: GM
authors.lastname: Attardo
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, New Mexico State University Las Cruces, NM, USA.
authors.forename: Stacy D
authors.initials: SD
authors.lastname: Rodriguez
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, New Mexico State University Las Cruces, NM, USA.
authors.forename: Lisa L
authors.initials: LL
authors.lastname: Drake
keywords: ecdysone; insulin; juvenile hormone; mosquito; target of rapamycin; vitellogenesis; yolk proteins