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载体之一， 2018年全球约有2.28亿人，死亡人数超过40万（世卫组织， 2019年，安。长期以来，coluzzii蚊子一直是公众健康的一个令人担忧的问题。这些蚊子依靠 它们的化学感受系统检测交配过程中的化学信号，包括 聚集信息素和表皮碳氢化合物群体聚集信息素增加了 而表皮碳氢化合物帮助雄蚊识别同种蚊子 女性我们最近的一项发现表明，Gr23缺失突变体不仅对二氧化碳不敏感， 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。先前 在伊蚊中的转录组学研究表明，Gr23表达于肺组织中的CO2敏感神经元， 但在触角和其他味觉感受器中表达最高 化学感受器附属物，这表明Gr23在CO2以外的化学感受中的额外作用 接待因此，本研究的目的是确定Gr23在交配能力中的作用 按蚊猫猴。在这里，我们假设观察到的Gr23突变体的自繁殖缺陷是由于它们的 无法检测与交配相关的化学信号，Gr23受体在其中起着关键作用。 化学感受过程因此，我建议解决的基本问题是：（1）什么是 Gr 23在安氏按蚊交配相关附肢化学感受神经元中的表达模式。coluzzii？（二） Gr23在检测与交配相关的信息化合物中的分子功能是什么？在解决这些 问题，这项工作将进一步了解Gr23在蚊子气味介导的交配中的作用 这一过程，将有很大的潜力，作为一个新的分子靶标在蚊子控制。

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.