An insight into the transcriptome of the digestive tract of the bloodsucking bug, Rhodnius prolixus.

ABSTRACT: The bloodsucking hemipteran Rhodnius prolixus is a vector of Chagas' disease, which affects 7-8 million people today in Latin America. In contrast to other hematophagous insects, the triatomine gut is compartmentalized into three segments that perform different functions during blood digestion. Here we report analysis of transcriptomes for each of the segments using pyrosequencing technology. Comparison of transcript frequency in digestive libraries with a whole-body library was used to evaluate expression levels. All classes of digestive enzymes were highly expressed, with a predominance of cysteine and aspartic proteinases, the latter showing a significant expansion through gene duplication. Although no protein digestion is known to occur in the anterior midgut (AM), protease transcripts

SUBMITTER: Ribeiro JM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3886914 | biostudies-literature | 2014

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature