Two insulin-like peptide family members from the mosquito Aedes aegypti exhibit differential biological and receptor binding activities.

ABSTRACT: Insects encode multiple ILPs but only one homolog of the vertebrate IR that activates the insulin-signaling pathway. However, it remains unclear whether all insect ILPs are high affinity ligands for the IR or have similar biological functions. The yellow fever mosquito, Aedes aegypti, encodes eight ILPs with prior studies strongly implicating ILPs from the brain in regulating metabolism and the maturation of eggs following blood feeding. Here we addressed whether two ILP family members expressed in the brain, ILP4 and ILP3, have overlapping functional and receptor binding activities. Our results indicated that ILP3 exhibits strong insulin-like activity by elevating carbohydrate and lipid storage in sugar-fed adult females, whereas ILP4 does not. In contrast, both ILPs exhibited dose-depend

SUBMITTER: Wen Z 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2957182 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature