The molecular basis of microorganism transmission by insect vectors

微生物已经进化出惊人的能力，能够在特定的环境中生存和生长。这些做法的核心是先进的分子武库，使微生物能够有效地与周围环境接触，促进营养物质的获取、物理保护和定殖。一个特别复杂的，但在很大程度上研究不足的环境，许多微生物暴露在昆虫载体的内部。在媒介传播过程中，微生物和昆虫之间的分子相互作用被用来促进机械附着，并支持与生长和分化相关的复杂生物过程。我们的目标是破译这些分子识别事件，从而建立许多社会和经济上重要的微生物传播的机制。通过这项工作，我们将准备开发新的干扰剂，能够限制媒介传播的病原体的传播。这对农业尤其重要，因为每年有近40%的全球粮食供应因疾病而损失。微生物-昆虫关系的复杂性需要选择适合生物化学表征的模型系统。因此，我们已经确定了锥虫-采采蝇对，由于其实验的易处理性，包括在培养物中生长锥虫的所有四个生命周期阶段的能力，以及采采蝇的大尺寸，其有利于解剖和分离用于受体鉴定的内部结构。进一步支持我们的研究是最近的一项研究，其中锥虫蛋白被确定为在采采蝇内寄生虫的生命周期阶段中选择性产生。通过绘制单个蛋白质的三维结构并利用功能表征补充这些数据，我们的目标是建立促进寄生虫和苍蝇之间的串扰的分子网络，这是疾病传播所必需的。通过从这些研究中获得的知识和开发的技术，我们将在战略上做好准备，调查越来越多的微生物-病媒关系。

Microorganisms have evolved an amazing capacity to survive and grow in specialized environmental niches. Central to these practices are sophisticated molecular arsenals that enable microorganisms to effectively interface with their surroundings and promote nutrient acquisition, physical protection and colonization. A particularly complex, yet largely understudied, environment to which many microorganisms are exposed is the inside of an insect vector. During vector-borne transmission, the molecular interactions between microorganism and insect are used to promote mechanical attachment and to support complex biological processes associated with growth and differentiation. Our goal is to decipher these molecular recognition events and thereby establish the mechanisms by which many socially and economically important microorganisms are transmitted. Through this work we will be poised to develop novel interfering agents capable of limiting the spread of vector-borne pathogens. This is particularly important to the agricultural industries where nearly 40% of the global food supply is lost on an annual basis to disease. The complexity of the microbe-insect relationship necessitates the selection of an appropriate model system that is amenable to biochemical characterization. Accordingly, we have identified the trypanosome-tsetse fly pair due to its experimental tractability that includes the ability to grow all four life cycle stages of trypanosomes in culture and the large size of the tsetse fly that facilitates dissection and isolation of internal structures for receptor identification. Further supporting our research is a recent study where trypanosome proteins were identified as being selectively produced during the life cycle stages of the parasite within the tsetse fly. By mapping the three dimensional structures of individual proteins and complementing these data with functional characterization, our goal is to establish the molecular network that promotes cross talk between parasite and fly necessary for disease transmission. Through the knowledge gained from these studies and the technologies developed, we will be strategically poised to investigate an increasing number of microbe-vector relationships.