Functional characterization of aquaporins and aquaglyceroporins of the yellow fever mosquito, Aedes aegypti.

ABSTRACT: After taking vertebrate blood, female mosquitoes quickly shed excess water and ions while retaining and concentrating the mostly proteinaceous nutrients. Aquaporins (AQPs) are an evolutionary conserved family of membrane transporter proteins that regulate the flow of water and in some cases glycerol and other small molecules across cellular membranes. In a previous study, we found six putative AQP genes in the genome of the yellow fever mosquito, Ae. aegypti, and demonstrated the involvement of three of them in the blood meal-induced diuresis. Here we characterized AQP expression in different tissues before and after a blood meal, explored the substrate specificity of AQPs expressed in the Malpighian tubules and performed RNAi-mediated knockdown and tested for changes in mosquito desiccati

SUBMITTER: Drake LL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4295104 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature