Comparative Physiology of Osmoregulation in Mosquitoes

由于蚊子的吸血习性，蚊子困扰着公众，也是许多严重疾病的媒介。在美国，许多对健康构成危害的蚊子种类都在咸水中繁殖。在东海岸，咸水蚊子大量出现在沿海沼泽中，控制它们对海滩和沿海水道的使用和享受至关重要。在西方，耐盐蚊子是病毒性脑炎和心线虫病等非常严重疾病的媒介。蚊子的幼虫是水生的。布拉德利博士正在研究耐盐蚊子在这种恶劣的水生栖息地生存的机制。更好地了解这些蚊子使用的机制可能使我们能够绕过这些机制和/或预测蚊子种群的位置，从而减少这些蚊子种群，并将控制程序引导到需要干预的地点。这项建议描述了对蚊子幼虫渗透调节机制的研究。“微咸水”蚊子幼虫是通过在血淋巴中积累有机渗透分子而形成的泛盐类渗透构象。布拉德利博士将利用微咸水中的库蚊，研究a)盐度变化过程中渗透调节的时间进程和模式，b)排泄系统在消除或保留低分子渗透调节中的作用，以及c)细胞内用于体积和渗透调节的渗透调节。系统发育证据表明，与微咸水渗透调节模式相关的机制独立地出现在两个蚊子属中。首席调查员将比较这些独立血统所采用的机制。这些研究旨在增加我们对生活在不同渗透调节生态位的分类受限的昆虫群体中渗透调节机制的理解。

Due to their bloodsucking habits, mosquitoes are disturbing annoyances to the public, as well as being the vectors of many serious diseases. Many of the species of mosquitoes which pose a health hazard in the United States breed in salt water. On the East Coast, saltwater mosquitoes occur in huge numbers in coastal marshes and their control is essential for the use and enjoyment of beaches and coastal waterways. In the West, salt-tolerant mosquitoes are the vectors of very serious diseases such as viral encephalitis and heartworm. The larvae of mosquitoes are aquatic. Dr. Bradley is investigating mechanisms used by salt-tolerant mosquitoes to survive in this harsh aquatic habitat. A better understanding of the mechanisms used by these mosquitoes may enable us to circumvent these mechanisms and/or predict the location of mosquitoes populations, thereby reducing these populations and directing control procedures to the sites where intervention is required. This proposal describe investigations into the mechanisms of osmoregulation in mosquito larvae. "Brackish-water" mosquito larvae are euryhaline osmoconformers by means of the accumulation of organic osmolytes in the hemolymph. Using the brackish-water species Culex tarsalis, Dr. Bradley will examine a) the time course and pattern of osmolyte regulation during changes in salinity, b) the role of the excretory system in eliminating or retaining osmolytes of low molecular weight and c) the osmolytes used intracellularly for volume and osmotic regulation. Phylogenetic evidence indicates that mechanisms associated with the brackish-water pattern of osmoregulation arose independently in two genera of mosquitoes. The Principal Investigator will compare the mechanisms employed by these independent lineages. The studies are designed to increase our understanding of the mechanisms of osmoregulation in a taxonomically restricted group of insects inhabiting a diverse range of osmoregulatory niches.