Investigating the Role of Gr23 Gene in the Mating Capacity of Malaria Vector Mosquito Anopheles coluzzii

项目摘要 作为疟疾寄生虫恶性疟原虫最重要的媒介之一， 2018年全球约有2.28亿人死亡，死亡人数超过40万(世卫组织， 2019年)，An。长期以来，蚊子一直是公共卫生的一个令人敬畏的问题。这些蚊子依靠 大量依赖它们的化学感官系统来检测交配过程中涉及的化学线索，包括 聚集信息素和角质层碳氢化合物。群聚信息素增加了这种可能性 在角质层碳氢化合物帮助雄性蚊子识别同种蚊子时遇到雌性蚊子 女性。我们最近的一项发现表明，不仅Gr23零突变体对二氧化碳不敏感 在刺激下，它们似乎也有一些交配缺陷，因为它们无法自我繁殖。上一首 对伊蚊的转录研究表明，Gr23在蚊子体内对二氧化碳敏感的神经元中表达 上颌触觉，但在所有味觉受体中，在触角和其他部位表达最高 化学感觉附件，这表明Gr23在二氧化碳以外的化学感觉中具有额外的作用 接待处。因此，本研究计划的目的是确定Gr23在交配能力中的作用 这是一个。猫头鹰。在这里，我们假设观察到的gr23突变体的自交缺陷是由于它们的 无法检测到与交配相关的化学信号，Gr23受体在其中起着关键作用 化学传感过程。因此，我建议解决的基本问题是：(1)什么是 Gr23在中华按蚊交配相关附属器化学感受神经元中的表达Coluzzii？(2) Gr23在检测交配相关信息化学物质中的分子功能是什么？在解决这些问题时 问题，这项工作将加深我们对Gr23在蚊子气味介导的交配中的作用的理解 过程，这将是一个巨大的潜力，作为一个新的分子靶点在蚊子控制。

Project Summary As one of the most important vectors for the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum, which infected approximately 228 million people worldwide in 2018 and accounted for more than 400,000 deaths (WHO, 2019), the An. coluzzii mosquito has long been a formidable concern to public health. These mosquitoes rely heavily on their chemosensory system to detect chemical cues involved in the mating process, including aggregation pheromones and cuticular hydrocarbons. Swarm aggregation pheromones increase the possibility of encountering female mosquitoes while cuticular hydrocarbons help male mosquitoes recognize conspecific females. A recent finding of ours indicated that not only were Gr23-null mutants insensitive to carbon dioxide stimulation, they also appeared to have some mating defect, as they failed to self-breed. Previous transcriptomic studies in Aedes mosquitoes indicated that Gr23 is expressed in CO2-sensitive neurons in the maxillary palps, but presents the highest expression among all gustatory receptors in the antennae and other chemosensory appendages, which suggests additional roles of Gr23 in chemosensation beyond CO2 reception. Therefore, the aim of this research proposal is to determine the role of Gr23 in the mating capacity of An. coluzzii. Here, we hypothesize that the observed self-breeding defect of Gr23 mutants is due to their inability to detect mating-related chemical cues, and that the Gr23 receptor plays a critical role in this chemosensory process. Accordingly, the fundamental questions I propose to address are: (1) what is the expression pattern of Gr23 in the chemosensory neurons of the mating-related appendages in An. coluzzii? (2) What is the molecular function of Gr23 in detecting the mating-related semiochemicals? In addressing these questions, this work will further our understanding of the role of Gr23 in the mosquito's odor-mediated mating process, which would have great potential as a novel molecular target in mosquito control.