Pilot Studies in Biochemistry of Anopheles gambiae

描述（由申请方提供）：蚊子传播的人类疾病对热带国家的人群有严重的负面影响，也影响温带地区的人群（例如，最近在北美出现的西尼罗河病毒）。冈比亚按蚊是撒哈拉以南非洲疟疾寄生虫的主要媒介。更好地了解A.冈比亚可能会改进阻断疟疾传播和控制人类疾病其他蚊媒的战略。最近公布的A.冈比亚蚊子基因组是一项重大成就，应能使这种蚊子基因产物功能的分子研究迅速取得进展。这项由研究人员发起的小额研究补助金的建议，是为了启动对两组蛋白质的生物化学的初步研究。冈比亚：丝氨酸蛋白酶抑制剂和漆酶。丝氨酸蛋白酶抑制剂是丝氨酸蛋白酶抑制剂，具有调节昆虫免疫应答的潜力。然而，它们在蚊子中的功能尚未确定。漆酶是能够氧化二酚以及其他类型的底物的铜氧化酶。漆酶可能在昆虫表皮硬化或免疫中起作用，但以前很少有人对它们进行生物化学研究。本研究的目的是获得五个漆酶样基因和一组14个丝氨酸蛋白酶抑制剂基因的全长cDNA克隆。gambiae的cDNA，并使用这些cDNA作为探针来研究基因的表达和用于产生重组蛋白以启动生物化学研究。这些目标旨在产生初步结果，以支持未来更广泛的建议。冈比亚丝氨酸蛋白酶和漆酶。该项目将是PI（蚊子生物化学）开发新研究领域的一个开始，该领域将建立在他在其他昆虫生物化学方面的经验基础上。

DESCRIPTION (provided by the applicant): Human diseases transmitted by mosquitoes have serious negative impacts on populations in tropical countries and also affect populations in temperate regions (for example, the recent emergence of West Nile virus in North America). Anopheles gambiae is a major vector of malaria parasites in sub-Saharan Africa. Better understanding of the biology of A. gambiae may lead to improved strategies for disrupting malaria transmission and for controlling other mosquito vectors of human diseases. The recent release of the DNA sequence of the A. gambiae genome has been a major achievement that should make possible rapid progress in molecular studies of the function of gene products in this mosquito. This proposal for an Investigator-Initiated Small Research Grant is to initiate pilot studies on the biochemistry of two groups of proteins in An. gambiae: serpins and laccases. Serpins are serine protease inhibitors, which have potential to regulate insect immune responses. However, their functions in mosquitoes have not yet been defined. Laccases are copper oxidases that can oxidize diphenols as well as other types of substrates. Laccases may function in insect cuticle sclerotization or immunity, but they have been the subject of little previous biochemical study. The aims of this project are to obtain full-length cDNA clones corresponding to the five laccase-like genes and a selected group of the 14 serpin genes from An. gambiae and to use these cDNAs as probes to study expression of the genes and for production of recombinant proteins for initiation of biochemical studies. These aims are intended to produce preliminary results to support future more extensive proposals on An. gambiae serpins and laccases. This project will be a start toward development of a new research area for the PI (mosquito biochemistry) that will build from his experience in biochemistry of other groups of insects.