Project description:Zika virus (ZIKV) of the Flaviviridae family is a recently emerged mosquito-borne virus that has been implicated in the surge of the number of microcephaly instances in south America. The virus is transmitted mainly by the mosquito Aedes aegypti that also vectors dengue virus. Considering rather recent rapid spread of the virus and its declaration as a global health emergency by the World Health Organization, little is known about the interactions of the virus with the mosquito vector. In this study, we investigated the transcriptome profiles of whole Ae. aegypti mosquitoes in response to ZIKV infection at 2, 7 and 14 days post-infection using deep sequencing. Results showed a large number of transcripts were altered at each time point following infection, but 18 transcripts were commonly changed at the three time points. The outcomes provide a basic understanding of Ae. aegypti responses to ZIKV and help determining host factors involved in replication or anti-viral response against the virus.
Project description:Aedes aegypti mosquitoes were orally infected with DENV, ZIKV or CHIKV virus, and once virus infection reached salivary gland tissues, these glands were dissected out and i-TRAQ performed to identify differentially expressed proteins during virus infection.
Project description:Zika virus (ZIKV), a pathogen of global health concern, is transmitted to humans by Aedes mosquitoes. However, the molecular interactions between the vector and the virus remain largely unexplored. We demonstrated that ZIKV and dengue virus (DENV) have similar tropism and infection kinetics in two mosquito strains with different degrees of susceptibility to infection. Comparison of Aedes aegypti’s molecular responses to ZIKV and DENV infection indicated that around 40% of the mosquito’s infection-responsive transcriptome is virus-specific. Regulated genes also included key factors of the mosquito’s anti-viral immunity, pointing to the possible involvement of the Toll innate immune pathway. Comparison of ZIKV and DENV infection-responsive transcriptome data to those for yellow fever virus and West Nile virus identified 26 genes likely to play key roles in virus infection of Aedes mosquitoes. Through reverse genetic analyses, we showed that the Toll and the Jak/Stat innate immune pathways mediate increased resistance to ZIKV infection, and the virus use vATPase and inosine-5’-monophosphate dehydrogenase as mosquito’s host factors.
Project description:We have generated transgenic Ae. aegypti that express a ZIKV-specific inverted repeat RNA intended to trigger the mosquito siRNA anti-viral immune pathway. To confirm that the transgene is expressed and processed, we performed small RNA sequencing on both Higgs White Eye (HWE) & anti-NS3/4A-ZIKV transgenic Ae. aegypti 24 hours post-bloodmeal
