MOSQUITO IMMUNITY FUNCTIONS

University Of Minnesota Twin Cities, Minneapolis MN

Investigators

Linked publications & trials

Abstract

DESCRIPTION (Adapted from the Applicant's Abstract): This 4-year proposal describes continuing investigation of immunity functions expressed by Aedes albopictus and Aedes aegypti mosquito cell lines. In a previous funding period, it was shown that these cells express several inducible activities when stimulated with heat-killed bacteria. Activities corresponding to transferrin, defensin, lysozyme and cecropin have now been characterized at the molecular level, including recovery of corresponding cDNAs. In aim 1 they will use the cecropin and lysozyme cDNAs as probes to characterized gene family size and genomic DNA structure. The work will include identification of exon-intron organization and recovery of upstream flanking DNA, which will be analyzed for potential regulatory elements.