Examination of Odorant Receptors in Vector Mosquitoes

描述（由申请人提供）：化学感觉反应是控制昆虫几种基本行为的关键组成部分，昆虫是导致许多重要人类疾病的病原体的媒介。特别是，嗅觉在吸血雌蚊寻找宿主和选择产卵行为中起着重要作用，因此，嗅觉是蚊子传播疟疾、登革热、黄热病和西尼罗河病毒脑炎等疾病的能力的关键组成部分。在此背景下，我们与同事们一起，对非洲主要疟疾媒介冈比亚按蚊和虫媒病毒媒介埃及伊蚊嗅觉信号转导级联的若干要素进行了分子和细胞检查。对这些系统中嗅觉机制及其潜在化学线索的进一步了解，可能有助于深入了解昆虫行为反应的一般过程，特别是媒介传播疾病的过程，并可能有助于开发新的蚊子控制策略。我们在这两种蚊子系统的嗅觉过程的几个方面的表征方面取得了重大进展，其中包括在An中识别和初步表征一个气味受体蛋白家族。冈比亚（AgORs）和Ae。埃及伊蚊（aors）位于嗅觉信号通路的核心。在这些进展的基础上，这项竞争性更新的提议将重点扩展我们正在进行的项目的几个要素，包括表征：(1)AgORs和AaORs之间的结构/功能关系；(2)AgORs和同源气味结合蛋白（AgOBPs）在幼虫嗅觉和体内气味编码中的作用；(3)怀孕成年雌性产卵地点选择的分子事件。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Chemosensory responses are critical components in the control of several essential behaviors of insects that are vectors for pathogens responsible for many important human diseases. In particular, olfaction plays a major role in host seeking and oviposition selection behaviors of blood-feeding female mosquitoes and, as such, constitutes a critical component of the mosquito's ability to transmit diseases such as malaria, dengue, yellow fever and West Nile virus encephalitis. Within this context, and together with our colleagues, we have undertaken a molecular and cellular examination of several elements of the olfactory signal transduction cascade in the principal African malaria vector mosquito Anopheles gambiae sensu stricto and the arbovirus vector Aedes aegypti. An increased understanding of olfactory mechanisms and their underlying chemical cues in these systems may provide insight into the processes of insect behavioral responses in general and disease transmission by vectors in particular and would likely be instrumental in the development of novel mosquito control strategies. We have made significant progress in the characterization of several aspects of olfactory process in both mosquito systems leading to, among other things, the identification and initial characterizations of a family of odorant receptor proteins in An. gambiae (AgORs) and Ae. aegypti (AaORs) that lie at the heart of the olfactory signaling pathway. Building on those advances, this proposal for competitive renewal focuses on extending several elements of our ongoing program including characterization of: (1) structure/function relationships between AgORs and AaORs, (2) the role of AgORs and cognate odorant binding proteins (AgOBPs) in the context of larval olfaction and odor coding in vivo and (3) the molecular events underlying oviposition site selection by gravid adult females.