Nutritional and endocrine control of mosquito egg development.

描述（由申请人提供）：我的职业目标是在动物生理学或综合生物学领域获得教职，这两个领域都需要广泛的生物学训练。病媒管理需要一系列工具来从多个层面研究蚊子，这样我们才能更深入地了解蚊子在其环境中如何发挥作用，从而找到控制昆虫病媒的新方法。我在有机体生物学、生态学和生物化学方面的背景将有助于实现这一目标。目前，我的研究开始对蚊子卵发育的分子内分泌学进行表征，初步结果支持RSDA的应用。我的研究项目包括描述雌性产卵的激素和营养控制。我未来的研究将试图解释的中心概念是，组织如何将营养水平的信息传递给神经系统，然后协调蚊子卵子成熟所需的激素分泌。作为病媒控制的一种方法，这些关键的监管程序可以作为干扰的目标。因为血液消化本身是一个复杂的生理过程，所以我使用了一种“自生体”蚊子，Ochlerotatus atropalpus，它不需要血餐，从而从我的实验中消除了血液消化的因素。在我的研究过程中，我在这种蚊子的卵巢和脂肪体中发现了一组可能参与生殖调节的基因。在这个应用程序中，我建议通过识别女性大脑中的基因来扩展我对在监测和调节卵子发生中起关键作用的组织的检查。然后，我将描述与蚊子产卵有关的组织特异性基因。候选基因和蛋白将进行定量PCR和免疫分析。参与调节卵子发育的三种肽激素也将在卵子发生过程中进行表征，并进行生物测定以证实所观察到的变化。从这些研究中，我期望描述蚊子中编码调节卵子发育所需产品的已知和新基因。冈比亚按蚊（Anopheles gambiae）和埃及伊蚊（Aedes aegypti）的基因组数据库是可用的，这为我提供了识别参与这些相同过程的基因的信息。这些基因的鉴定和鉴定将扩大我们对蚊媒噬血和病原体传播的认识。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): My career goal is to obtain a faculty position in the field of animal physiology or integrative biology, both fields of which require broad training in biology. Vector management requires an array of tools to study mosquitoes at multiple levels, so that we gain a deeper understanding of how mosquitoes function in their environment, leading to novel ways of controlling insect vectors of disease. My background in organismal biology, ecology, and biochemistry will help reach this goal. Currently, my research is beginning to characterize the molecular endocrinology of mosquito egg development, preliminary results of which support this RSDA application. My research program entails characterizing the hormonal and nutritional control of female egg production. The central concept that my future studies will seek to explain is how tissues convey information about nutrient levels to the nervous system that then coordinates hormone production for egg maturation in mosquitoes. These key regulatory processes can serve as targets for disruption as an approach for vector control. Because blood digestion itself is a complex physiological process, I use a species of "autogenous" mosquito, Ochlerotatus atropalpus, which does not require a blood meal, thus removing the factor of blood digestion from my experiments. In progress toward my reseach goals, I have identified sets of genes in ovaries and fat body of this mosquito that may be involved in the regulation of reproduction. In this application, I propose to extend my examination of tissues that play a key role in monitoring and regulating oogenesis by identifying genes in female brains. I will then characterize tissue-specific genes expected to be involved in mosquito egg production. Candidate genes and proteins will be subjected to quantitative PCR and immunoassays. Three peptide hormones involved in regulating egg development will also be characterized over the course of oogenesis and subjected to bioassays to substantiate the observed changes. From these studies, I expect to characterize sets of known and new genes in mosquitoes that encode products required to regulate egg development. Genomic databases are available for the vectors Anopheles gambiae and Aedes aegypti, giving me information to mine for the identification of genes involved in these same processes. Identification and characterization of these genes should expand our understanding of hematophagy and pathogen transmission in mosquito vectors.