HOBO-LIKE ELEMENTS IN INSECTS

虫媒传播的疾病仍然是全世界死亡的主要原因。 必须不断开发研究和防治这些疾病和传播这些疾病的昆虫的新工具。 该研究计划的长期目标是为人类具有医学意义的昆虫开发基因工程工具，并利用这些新工具更好地了解昆虫/病原体和寄生虫相互作用的基本生物学。 这些新工具还将用于开发新的基于遗传学的方法，以干扰昆虫媒介传播的疾病。 这项建议有两个主要组成部分-继续发展爱马仕基因载体系统以提高其效率和宿主范围，以及发展调查库蚊的遗传工具。本研究的主要目的是：1）了解Hermesin转座酶基因整合的方式及其调控机制; 2）确定hAT元件在昆虫中相互作用的机制、范围和后果; 3）通过蛋白质修饰和工程改造提高爱马仕转座酶的重组活性; 4）开发库蚊基因载体和增强子捕获工具。 5)开发了一种功能性的基于按蚊hAT元件的基因载体系统。 这些目标将通过遗传学和分子遗传学方法来实现。

Insect vector-born diseases continue to be a major source of mortality worldwide. The continuous development of new tools to study and combat these diseases and the insects that transmit them is essential. The long term goals of this research program are to develop genetic engineering tools for insects of medical significance to man and to use these new tools to gain a better understanding of the basic biology of insect/pathogen and parasite interactions. These new tools will also be used to develop new genetics-based methods for interfering with insect vector-born disease transmission. This proposal has two principal components - continued development of the Hermes gene vector system to improve its efficiency and host range, and the development of genetic tools to investigate Culex mosquitoes. The specific aims are to 1) understand the modes of integration used by Hermesin mosquito and how these modes are regulated 2) determine the mechanisms, range and consequences of hAT element interactions in insects, 3) increase the recombination activity of Hermes transposase through protein modification and engineering, 4) develop gene vector and enhancer-trapping tools for Culex mosquitoes. 5) develop a functional anopheline hAT element-based gene vector system. These aims will be accomplished using genetic and molecular genetic methods.