The structures of two salivary proteins from the West Nile vector Culex quinquefasciatus reveal a beta-trefoil fold with putative sugar binding properties.

ABSTRACT: Female mosquitoes require blood meals for egg development. The saliva of blood feeding arthropods contains biochemically active molecules, whose anti-hemostatic and anti-inflammatory properties facilitate blood feeding on vertebrate hosts. While transcriptomics has presented new opportunities to investigate the diversity of salivary proteins from hematophagous arthropods, many of these proteins remain functionally undescribed. Previous transcriptomic analysis of female salivary glands from Culex quinquefasciatus, an important vector of parasitic and viral infections, uncovered a 12-member family of putatively secreted proteins of unknown function, named the Cysteine and Tryptophan-Rich (CWRC) proteins. Here, we present advances in the characterization of two C. quinquefasciatus</

SUBMITTER: Kern O 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8244437 | biostudies-literature | 2021

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature