Salivary gland maturation and duct formation in the African malaria mosquito Anopheles gambiae.

ABSTRACT: Mosquito-borne diseases cause one million deaths and hundreds of millions of human infections yearly. With all such diseases, the pathogen must traverse the mosquito salivary gland (SG) for transmission to a new host, making the SGs ideal targets for genetic strategies to block transmission. Prior studies have elucidated details of SG structure by light and electron microscopy and have deeply explored the salivary transcriptome and proteome. Very little is known, however, about how the unique functional architecture of mosquito SGs is achieved. Using immunohistochemistry and confocal microscopy, we address two questions regarding SGs of the malaria vector Anopheles gambiae. How does the distinct cup-shaped morphology of SG secretory cells arise? And, how does the salivary duct, the structu

SUBMITTER: Wells MB 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5428862 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature