Project description:We custom-built a bioinformatics pipeline to search for 20E-modifying enzymes in the accessory glands of Anopheles gambiae males, searching for ecdysteroid kinases (EcK), ecdysone oxidases (EO), and ecdysteroid-phosphate phosphatases (EPP). To this end, we generated RNAseq datasets of different An. gambiae tissues dissected from virgin and mated females and males, and produced similar datasets for Anopheles albimanus, a South American species that does not synthetize and transfer ecdysteroids during mating. These analyses led to the identification of one candidate EPP and two potential EcKs (EcK1 and EcK2), which we demonstrated are involved in the activity of a male-specific oxidized ecdysteroid (3D20E). We further determined that 3D20E is specifically produced by the An. gambiae male accessory glands and is transferred to females during copulation, where it triggers a series of post-mating responses.
Project description:Field resistant Anopheles coluzzii were compared to the lab susceptible Anopheles coluzzii N'Gousso. The samples were collected in 2014 in Burkina Faso and show resistance to pyrethroid insecticides.
Project description:The transcriptional profile of pyrethroid resistant Anopheles arabiensis from Zanzibar. Anopheles arabiensis from Pemba Island, exposed (Survivors) and non-exposed (Pemba) to a discriminating dose of the pyrethroid lambda-cyhalothrin were compared to two insecticide susceptible strains from Zanzibar island (Unguja) and Dar es Salaam (Dar).
